


Babysitter

by Baby_Fangirl



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - High School, Bullying, Ceve, F/F, Fluff, casseve
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:15:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 35,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21605152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baby_Fangirl/pseuds/Baby_Fangirl
Summary: Infuriated that her parents are leaving days before her 18th birthday, Cassandra learns how to deal with the idea of a babysitter. Eve learns about Cillian's hard times at school, and truthfully wants to help the girl. But there are some feelings that grow from kindness.
Relationships: Ceve - Relationship, Eve Baird & Cassandra Cillian, Eve Baird/Cassandra Cillian
Kudos: 43





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This work shows examples, depictions and representations of bullying. If this is a sensitive topic, then this is a warning that there will be scenes of bullying, and this may not be the best read for you.
> 
> Otherwise, please enjoy,  
> xo ~ Baby Fangirl

Cassandra rarely understood adults, and it didn't help with the fact that she was nearly one herself, her eighteenth birthday was in four days, and her family wasn't going to be around to celebrate it with her. Not that Cassandra Cillian really celebrated her birthday anymore, it seemed unnecessarily cruel to count the years that she survived the tumour in her brain. 

Yes, adults were weird in many ways, but in the red-heads point of view, what was most complicated were the relationships. Her mother and father had split up over a year ago, after the stress of having a terminally ill daughter had pushed them into more arguments and money problems than they were used to. For months, the girl had been handed from home to home like a Cass-pass-the-parcel, her parents only talking to each other when they had to split a hospital bill. And somehow, after everything, they still got back together three weeks ago in an attempt to rekindle the fire of their relationship. 

Adults were unusual creatures, but what blew Cassandra’s mind most of all was the fact that they were going on holiday together on her birthday, without her. It didn't matter that much to the girl, she knew her parents deserved some time to themselves without having to worry about her, besides she preferred having them around at the same time, and not having to choose one home for the holidays. 

Cassandra closed her book in her lap and took a deep breath, she had been studying for her physics exam like she wasn't a mathematical genius. The studying was just a time waster so that she didn't have to listen to her mum check off their holiday requirements, and didn’t have to watch her dad pack up every book from his study that he thought he would need. But inwardly the girl knew that she couldn't avoid it forever, and Cassandra finally slinked downstairs where, to her surprise, her parents were sitting together on the couch, laughing lightly like their relationship hadn't been in jeopardy. 

They sat up straight when they saw her. "Ah Cassandra, there's something that we need to discuss with you," her dad stated with a weary smile, as she curled herself up in the armchair across the room. 

"If it's about the birds and the bees, I learnt it at school," Cassandra instantly retorted with a tiny grin forming on her lips. Her father laughed. He always laughed at her jokes regardless of whether they were funny or not; but Cillian appreciated it none the less, he was easy to be around like that; unlike her mother who barely cracked a smile around her any more. 

He shook his head softly from side to side, tentatively choosing his next words, "No honey, we've got you a baby sitter for the week while we're away,". Cillian almost choked on nothing other than air. Was he serious? She was the most responsible girl in the world. If anything, she would be making sure the baby-sitter didn’t make a mess in the house. 

"You guys remember that I'm almost eighteen, right? Not to mention that I know how to take care of myself, eat food, drink water, don't shove my fingers in electric sockets," her mother glowered slightly at her words. The woman honestly thought that Cassandra was incapable of anything, ever since she stopped winning science fair trophies and math certificates she was rendered almost useless. 

Regardless, the woman sighed, and took the man’s hand in her own as she spoke, "We know, Cass but it would put our minds at ease to know someone was watching out for you,” the redhead couldn’t help but roll her eyes slightly. _Because I have a tumour and might suddenly die._ Cassandra sighed, only talking back to her mother in her mind, in real life, she just nodded. 

Her parents had begun to treat her like she was a delicate ornament the second they found out about her condition. Her mother threw out her awards, claiming that they were a waste of space, and she set strict rules in place, like times were Cassandra had to be home by, and foods that she couldn’t eat. Her father had even stopped hugging her so tight in case she broke. 

She hated it. 

"Jake could have watched over me," Cassandra pointed out and her mother bristled visibly. Her parents preferred Stone over Jones, sure that Jake was the most level-headed boy of her age. But they still didn't agree with boys staying over, as if it made much of a difference. She wasn’t into them anyway. 

"Well as it turns out, your father knows of a wonderful woman who has agreed to look after you for the week,” her mother interjected, glancing between her ex-husband and her daughter. Her father nodded with a warm smile, his eyes betraying his worry; as if the girl might even spontaneously combust in the living room. 

"That's right, I met her at the pigeon shooting tournament, a right beauty, if I hadn’t still been pining over your mother, I would’ve chased her," the man laughed. Right, after they had split up, her dad had taken up an array of hobbies, doing almost anything to pass the time. His Clay pigeon shooting was one of the things that he would always tell Cassie about over dinner. But she didn’t see it as a sport, or an ideal friend-meeting zone. 

The redhead arched a brow still unconvinced. “So... you're leaving me with a gun slinger?” Both her mother and her father ignored that. 

"We've invited her over to dinner to see how everything gets along, and she'll stay the night so that we can leave nice and early in the morning.” her mother spoke and before Cassandra had the chance to argue, or try and persuade them that she was alright by herself the doorbell rang, and the woman instantly tore herself away from the couch to answer it. Her father let his hands rest on his knees before sighing softly once more. 

“I just want to be sure that you’re okay, Cassie, you know I worry about you,” he smiled kindly before standing up, and Cassandra followed suit, hugging her father tight around the middle. 

“I know, dad,” she smiled, and quickly stepped away as her mother returned with her ‘baby-sitter’ in tow. 

“Cassandra, this is Eve Baird, she’ll be staying here the week,” her dad announced and Cassandra quickly thought up some polite introduction, maybe even a hand shake, but when she glanced up; the words fell limp on her lips, all hopes of a greeting vanishing into the air. 

The woman was stunning. She was miraculously tall (despite the fact that everyone was tall in comparison to the petite redhead). Her blonde hair was tied back neatly in a ponytail, exposing the sweet smile on her countenance, she wore tight, black trousers with a beige, cotton blouse and shiny ankle boots. Her bright blue eyes were glimmering, and Cassandra had to swallow back the sentence that she had mentally prepared. 

“Hi, you must be Cassandra,” Eve took the initiative, stepping forward further into the living room, extending her hand out. Cillian hadn’t thought that her baby sitter would be so attractive; most baby sitters were girls with braces struggling to make it through college, picking up easy jobs to gain a couple more bucks; but then again; Eve wasn’t a baby sitter, all that Cass knew about her was that she shot clay pigeons, and that she was beautiful. 

“Hi,” the redhead whispered, throwing the word out of her mouth in a desperate attempt to say something, anything, and not just stand there staring. She finally took the woman’s hand, shaking once before quickly letting go; she escaped to the kitchen with her mother, who was more than ready to serve dinner. 

* * *

Sitting around the dinner table was awkward to say the least. Cassandra was still partially annoyed that her parents were leaving her with a _babysitter_ , practically confirming the fact that they didn’t trust her alone. Hell she was still annoyed with the fact that they were leaving her for her birthday. She was even still annoyed that they separated in the first place; but Cillian kept all her feelings to herself. Even the constant worry that was rooted deep in her stomach about the exam that she was preparing for. 

Her mother and father sat adjacent on one side of the table, and she sat beside Eve on the other. It was mostly silence apart from the occasional ‘Did you pack the blue shorts?’ or a ‘Did you remember to pack the small sized shirt, not the big size?” that her mother quietly blurted out every three minutes. 

“Can you pass the potatoes?” Cassandra asked, and Eve hastily obliged, leaning across the table for the bowl. 

“Cassandra! Manners!” her mother scorned and for a moment, the redhead actually missed having her parents in two separate houses. Cillian wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not when her father cut in talking about the rules whilst the redhead spooned some more mash onto her plate. 

“Even though she’s practically an angel there are a few laws that we live by here. There is to be no alcohol consumption; she’s not allowed boys in her room; no parties. She must always be home by nine, and if she’s going out, make sure you know where,” he listed off, and Cassandra stared at her plate, wishing that she could drown herself in the pool of gravy. “Make sure her homework is done, and that she doesn’t skip school. Also make sure she doesn’t skip breakfast.”. 

Honestly, who did her parents think she was? Truthfully, she was the most well-behaved girl, and yet here they were implying that she was about to sneak booze and boys into her bedroom. Cassandra never broke the rules, but she was getting so frustrated with them that she was considering breaking every single one just to prove that she was mad. 

Eve nodded along, clearly making a mental checklist in her head. 

“Can I be excused?” Cassandra whispered at her plate, not waiting for an answer before she practically fled from the table and up to her room, ignoring the concerned glances that her parents, and Eve were staring at her back; and cocooned herself under the purple duvet cover. She pretended to read for a while; still too angry to concentrate; until she heard three lots of footsteps enter the hall. 

Cassandra held her breath and listened to the voices through the wall that joined her bedroom with the landing. 

“I hope everything will be to your liking, you have our numbers if you need anything,” her mother spoke quietly, and Cassandra heard a heavy bag drop to the floor in the spare room beside hers. How had they set that up without her knowing? It had been a junk room for years. “We’ll most likely be gone by the time you two wake up tomorrow, so I hope that everything goes alright,” 

“It’s perfect, thank you,” Eve replied and Cassandra rolled her eyes yet again; how much was she getting paid for this? 

Her father cleared his throat softly, lowering his voice slightly so that Cassandra had to strain to hear what was being said on the other side of the wall. “Cassie is usually a lovely girl, but I think things may be going on at school that sometimes brings about an attitude, I know our relationship has been hard on her, but if you have any problems, you’re alright to call us right away,”, he spoke softly and before the redhead knew it, she was wiping silent tears from her cheeks. 

It was her fault for eavesdropping, sure, but it always hurt to find out what your parents really thought. 

Cassandra shuffled down into her bed, carefully placing her book on the bedside table and turned out her light, falling asleep with silent sniffles, saddened by the fact that her parents didn’t even say goodbye. 

* * *

Eve knocked quietly on the door of the girls room at eight thirty, calling out her name quietly. There was no answer and so she called again a little louder still to no avail. Baird carefully opened the door and took the few steps from the doorway to Cillian's bed. The girl was still sound asleep, tucked into an impossibly small ball, her red hair falling slightly in front of her face like a waterfall of fire. It was rather endearing and Eve fought back a grin as she gently shook the girls shoulder. 

“Cassandra? Wake up, honey. I don’t know what time you need to be up for school, but it’s currently eight thirty,” the blonde softly whispered, moving the strand of hair out of the young girls face as she stirred slightly, blinking sleepily. In a sudden flash, the redhead had bolted upright, bright blue eyes wide and alarmed, her hair mussed and dishevelled. 

“It’s eight thirty?” she echoed, a nervous worry creeping into her tone; seemingly more surprised about the time than the fact that her baby sitter was sitting on her bed. Eve nodded cautiously. “Crap! School starts in thirty minutes! I mean- I didn’t mean to swear! It’s Zeke’s fault! I just- I'm sorry! I need to get dressed!” Cassandra fretted, flinging back her bed sheets, zooming to her wardrobe clad in a matching set of tiny shorts and a t-shirt, patterned with Eeyore. 

Eve let a quiet chuckle escape from her lips as she watched, her gaze following the nervous teen before the realisation hit that Cillian would be changing clothes, and she made her exit with a warm smile, and went downstairs to make some coffee. It wasn’t too long later that she heard Cassandra’s rapid footsteps racing down the stairs, and a flustered girl appeared in the doorway. She was dressed in bright purple tights; a white floral shirt, and a small denim all-in-one with shorts that hugged her thighs. 

“Good morning, Cassandra,” Eve smiled as the redhead quickly crossed the kitchen to grab her school bag from the rack on the wall in which she hastily stuffed her papers and her science book. So, it hadn’t been a dream, her parents really had vanished to travel the globe, leaving their daughter behind with a stranger. She was still slightly mad about it. 

“Hey,” Cass responded, leaning against the table to tie her shoes. At this height she was eye level with Eve’s long legs, and toned thighs that her grey sweatpants were clinging to for dear life. A pink blush highlighted her cheeks and the second that she had double-knotted her laces, the girl sprang for the door, “I’m off to school Bu-bye,”. The keys turned in the lock before Baird stopped her. 

“Wait! your dad said you had to eat breakfast,” the blonde argued, her recently relaxed posture, leaning against the sink had alternated to a highly-alerted stance, as if she was some kind of guard dog. 

Cassandra shrugged nervously as she turned back around to face the kitchen area. “My dad also said not to talk to strangers but here we are,” She muttered, not wanting to be late for school; she had a perfectly clean record and didn’t want her first and only detention because she woke up late. 

Eve sighed, tightening her traditional ponytail, “Look, I know this may seem weird to you, but I don’t want to have to tell your father-” 

“What? That I’m not being a good girl? I would love to stay and chat, but I have to go to school,” Cass argued, interrupting her babysitters' sentence; she hardly ever had an attitude but she was in no mood for a total stranger to be bossing her around in her own home. 

Eve crossed her arms, a slightly stern glance in her eyes and arched a brow before relenting with another falling sigh, “At least let me drive you there, it’s raining.” Baird pointed out. Sure enough, it was, and not just drizzling down, it was pouring, the windows were receiving a very wet bashing as sheets of raindrops crashed against the glass. 

To be fair, Cassandra didn’t want to walk to school in that rainstorm, but she didn’t want to have to rely on the blonde, still wanting to prove to her family that she could be left alone to take care of herself. The seventeen-year-old shook her head. “No thanks, I’ll walk,”. 

Eve stepped forward, her boots making her tower over the redhead, she wore a soft smirk that made Cassandra feel like jelly, as she canted her head slightly. “If you let me drive you to school, I’ll let this whole breakfast thing slide.” she proposed, and Cillian let her eyes flash to the clock that hung on the nearby wall. Eight forty-seven. If she didn’t accept the offer, she’d be late for sure. 

“Fine.” the girl relented, and Eve smiled, grabbing her keys from the kitchen counter. 

The car was sleek and black. Cassandra didn’t know too much about models, that was Jakes thing. All that she knew, was that it was comfortable, warm, and drove on four wheels. She felt lost in the large, leather seat that practically swallowed her whole, and she nervously shrugged when Eve asked her what music she liked. 

“I know you don’t need a babysitter; it must be weird to have someone else intrude in your home,” the blonde spoke, stealing a glance over to the girl in the passenger seat. Cassandra let her eyes follow the windscreen wipers as they automatically brushed the rain off the car. She continued, “I don’t want you to feel like I’m crossing any of your boundaries, okay? Maybe you could think of me as a friend,”. 

“I don’t have many of those. I’ve never had a friend that much older than me either,” Cassandra whispered, chewing lightly on her bottom lip, it was a bad habit that she had never managed to break. Jake and Ezekiel were her only friends, and she only got to share four classes with them. They’d all hang out at lunch, and sometimes they would walk home together, or chill out at each other's homes for a few hours. Her parents always wanted her back for dinner. 

Eve laughed softly, “How old do you think I am?” she asked and Cassandra blushed, being put on the spot. She didn’t want to answer incorrectly, she never got a number question wrong. 

“Twenty-seven?” the girl asked hopefully, finally training her attention on the driver. She really was beautiful; her dad had been right about that. There was something captivating about the way that she held herself; like she had respect for herself, but had no problem breaking a few nails by putting someone in their place. 

“Close,” the blonde grinned back, turning onto another road. “Twenty-six,” she corrected, and Cassandra mentally scorned herself, as if she could’ve known. In three days, she would be eighteen, and then Eve would be only eight years older than her. 

Cillian recognized the familiar fences surrounding the school as they turned onto the right street and she picked her bag up off the floor. “Thanks for the lift, Miss Baird,” Cassandra mumbled as the car slowed down to a stop directly outside of the stairs to the entrance. 

“Please, Cassandra, just call me Eve,” she mused softly, a grin illuminating her lips as the girl nodded in affirmation. “Have a good day!” 

“Don’t tell me what to do, you’re not my real mom,” Cassandra spoke lightly in an obvious jest and Eve let a warm chuckle slip loose past her lips. She watched the redhead slam the door and hurry up the stairs before she got drenched. 

Cassandra felt the cold morning air puncture her lungs, hugging her backpack as she ran forward. She was half way up the stairs when something hard collided with her back and before she knew it, she was on the ground, the contents of her bag spilled around her. Laughter and students surround her as the boy who had shoved her just stepped over the mess of books that started to get wet, “Why don’t you get out of everyone's way and swallow some razor blades you nerdy bitch!” 

Everyone laughed again, and Cassandra became aware of a painful stinging in her knee, she forced herself up once the crowd dispersed, and quickly gathered all her belongings, before hobbling inside, throwing a teary glance over her shoulder. Eve’s car was still parked out the front of the school, and Cassandra could only hope that she hadn’t seen what had just occurred. 

Cillian ran into the school as the bell rang, her cheeks bright red with the humiliation, her eyes burning as bad as her knee was, where she was trying not to cry. 


	2. Chapter 2

Cassandra Cillian spent half of her English lesson wiping the dirt from her knee and picking gravel from her scathed palms where she had caught herself as she landed. The teacher had given her a tissue when she had asked for one, and she pressed the paper to her knee that was still bleeding badly. She didn’t need to go to the medical room; besides the nurse couldn’t call her parents about it; they were probably on an airplane eating nuts and drinking champagne. 

Her purple tights were laddered and torn, and she felt sorrier for her favourite tights than she did for herself. She was used to this.

When the bell rang, she was thankful that she’d stopped bleeding, discarding the tissue before making her way to geography. Jake glowered when he saw her wobble into the room with a cut knee and destroyed tights. 

“Cass! What the hell happened, who did that?” he spoke, his tone filled with quiet rage and worry as she sat down in between him and Ezekiel who had turned his attention away from his phone to see what was the matter.

“Jeez, that looks like it hurts!” He added, and Cassandra didn’t want to admit that his assumption was correct; it stung like hell. 

“Some guy pushed me down outside, all my books got damp,” the redhead sighed as she pulled a water-stained class book out of her bag and placed it on the desk in front of her. She had been pushed down a lot, in hallways, in the cafeteria, in the tennis courts; nobody liked a know-it-all, and everyone made fun of her, especially for being a synesthete. One time she had fallen in the corridor and her skirt had risen too high; she had been asked what colour underwear she was wearing for months after that.

And if that wasn’t enough, the girl's bathroom stalls had almost been completely graffitied with death wishes, insults and  all-over verbal abuse. Only one out of sixteen cubicles hadn’t been rendered with hate-graffiti, so that was the only one that Cillian would use.

“Forget about your books, Cass, you’re the more important one; you should go see the nurse, get that patched up,” Stone whispered as more students began to file into the room. Some snickered when they saw her. The girl shook her head softly. 

“I can’t, they need parental permission to administer anything, even creams and plasters, and my parents are on holiday,” she replied, flipping through her work book to see if any of her ink was damaged by the rainfall.

Ezekiel shuffled his chair closer with an annoyingly loud scrape. “Wait, if  ya folks are out of town, why don’t  ya host a party? There is absolutely no problem that beers an’ music can’t fix,” he whispered excitedly, probably already planning on ‘borrowing’ some fog machines for the non-existent event.

“There are plenty of problems in which beer and music is not a solution!” Cass whispered back, “World poverty, slavery, animal endangerment, _besides_ , you two are my only friends, I can’t host a party for three. I can’t host a party anyway! _Besides_ besides,” she continued, finally taking a breath, “Mom and dad left me with a babysitter,” She concluded quietly.

Ezekiel laughed, shaking his head, “Really? A babysitter?  Ya almost eighteen!”.

“That’s what I said! Regardless, there will be no parties,” Cassandra shot down the idea, too much of an introvert to be dealing with that kind of horrific responsibilities. That would be wrecking the ‘no parties’ rule; the ‘no boys’ rule and the ‘no alcohol’ rule.

Jake smirked softly, shrugging his shoulders, “So what they like? Your baby sitter?” he kept his voice low, and Cassandra was grateful that he didn’t give her tormentors another excuse to bully her.

Cillian shrugged, figuring that she couldn’t say how beautiful the woman  was. “She’s okay, I guess,” and with that, the bell rang to signify the start of class, and the teacher cleared his throat. 

Cassandra escaped the school gates after the end of day bell had rung; waving goodbye to her friends who were off to work on their biology project. Over the day she had received a few more jeers and jests; the boy that had barged into her had saw her in the cafeteria and laughed at her torn clothes. She had spent lunch with her face as red as her hair. 

Thankfully, the rain had stopped, although grey clouds loomed across the sky, summing up her mood for the day as she hobbled home, trying not to notice the pain that accompanied every step that she took. 

The house was quiet when she pushed through the door, her eyes immediately catching on the tiny table where they keep their keys and letter-openers. A small sheet of paper had been torn from a notepad and left where Cassandra could see. Loopy black writing read:  _ Gone out for groceries. Back Soon. E.B x _

After the day's events, Cillian had almost forgotten that her baby sitter was her only company for the week; and even though the redhead spent a lot of time alone, it felt too quiet being the only person there. She ran up to her room and changed clothes, her ruined tights finding their way into the bin. She dressed in the only over the knee length skirt that she owned, and matched the black material with a sky-blue jumper. Hopefully, Eve wouldn’t question the outfit change. 

Once she was satisfied that she couldn’t notice her beaten up knee, she took her maths homework downstairs to the kitchen table where she began to work in silence.

Eve had been seconds away from tearing that boy to absolute shreds. Sure, she had known Cassandra Cillian for a couple of hours, but her father talked so highly of her whenever they partnered up at a shooting range. ‘Cassie is my sweet little angel’, ‘Cassandra has a heart of gold’, ‘She’s a talented little sweetheart,’. And of course, he had been right. She was too sweet, and adorable, and kind of quirky. And even if she had some attitude, all teenagers had their difficult times, hell, when she was a teen, she had raised the roof. But now it was impossible to blame the girl for her outburst after witnessing what had happened.

How could anyone be so cruel to such an innocent and darling girl? Eve was almost in flames of anger as she sat behind the steering wheel, staring daggers at the crowd that simply laughed at her. Baird was about to get out the car when Cillian pulled herself up, gathering her scattered books and pencils, and shuffled into school looking even smaller than she really was. 

Eve had been angry the whole drive back to Cillian’s residence, showering her fury down the drain and spent a couple of hours on her laptop, eventually cooling down. 

Baird loaded the shopping bags into the back of her car, slamming the door closed with pent-up aggression which surprised her, having thought that she had surpassed the event earlier that day? Apparently, Cassandra’s bullying was still playing on her mind.

“I swear I’ll teach that boy a lesson,” she mumbled quietly under her breath as she shuffled into the driver's seat, glaring at the road. 

Eve barely managed to slide the spare key into the lock whilst balancing out the weight of six shopping bags, three on each arm. She struggled into the hall, greeted by the lovely warmth of the indoors. “Cass!  Wanna help me get these groceries?” Baird called out into the silence, expecting some kind of response. She carefully set the bags down in front of the door, unbuttoning her coat as she searched for the redhead.

“Cassandra?” she called out again, laying her coat across the arm of the sofa, she turned around for the opposite direction. Oh, there she was. Eve sighed in relief as she saw the girl sitting at the kitchen table. “Cass, do you-” she stopped mid-sentence as she waltzed into the kitchen, noticing that the girl wasn’t listening to her at all. 

In fact, the girl was entirely focused on something in the air, mindlessly muttering under her breath, occasionally, she would raise her hand in the air and flick through something invisible, and continue to read off things that only she could see. 

“Cassandra?” she tried again, more forcefully this time, going as far as to softly shake her shoulder for the second time that day, and the redhead almost leapt out of her seat, eyes wide and a red blush crept slowly into her cheeks. 

“Eve! I’m sorry!” she instantly apologised before the older woman got the chance to, and quickly stood up, pushing her math book across the table, as if it was the books fault. Baird stood for a moment with her mouth agape, not really sure what she had witnessed.

“Are... are you alright?” She asked and Cassandra nodded, too ashamed to make eye contact. “What was that?” her tone was delicate, almost as if she was afraid that it was a sensitive subject. Cillian recognized that tone. It was the tone that her parents used when she had a headache so bad that her nose began to bleed; or if a dizzy spell left her lying on the couch. It was the voice they used when she was too fragile for them to deal with.

“It’s synaesthesia,” the girl answered with a small voice, glancing up at the blonde and realising that her answer didn’t really answer anything, “My senses are linked to my photographic memory, numbers come to me in colours, science is musical, and I smell things when I do math,” she pointed at her math book that was littered with diagrams and equations. “I can smell breakfast...  croissants and jam,” she offered, before blushing again.

“That’s incredible,” Eve spoke, amazed and almost  breath taken . How could Cassandra be so ashamed of such an astounding gift.

Cass glanced up with a smile tingling in the corners of her lips. “Dad didn’t tell you about it did he?”.

Baird cleared her throat, “He said you were special.” she explained, sitting down in the chair and Cassandra followed suit. 

“All parents say that their kids are special. He probably just told you about my tumour and forgot about the other part of me. That’s all that they think about. They concern themselves with my illness and forget that I’m actually good at stuff,” Cassandra admitted and Eve’s heart broke. It was bad enough that the kids at  school picked on her for her amazing abilities, but then to come home where your family didn’t acknowledge those talents?

That had to hurt.

And that reminded her...

“I’ll be right back,” she excused herself and headed for the bathroom, Cassandra’s mother had reminded her where the first aid kit was about thirty times over the short time that they talked, but it came in handy, and Baird located the box beneath the sink with ease. She returned to where the girl was sat and her eyes widened slightly.

“Please tell me you’re only doing inventory,” Cassie mumbled, instinctively pulling down on her skirt to make sure that she was well covered. She didn’t want Eve to have to know what was going on at school. Her baby sitter was the only one besides from her two friends that didn’t treat her like she needed help. 

The blonde’s usual smile wouldn’t come, she was concerned and for a perfectly good reason. “I saw what happened today, Cassandra, and even if I hadn’t, your change of clothes is suspicious,” Eve spoke with all the authority of a teacher and Cass softly whined, closing her eyes, as if it would make everything just go away. 

It didn’t.

“Can I see?” Eve softly pressed onwards, opening the box and kneeling on the wooden kitchen floor, right in front of the teenager. 

“Nothing happened, okay? It was an accident,” She really didn’t want Eve to think that she couldn’t fend for herself; for some reason it was important to her that the older woman regarded her as an adult too, she technically was one, in three days.

Baird narrowed her eyes, not asking for permission, “It didn’t sound like an accident, I heard what he said,” she answered back, and without further asking, she took the  hem of Cassandra black skirt and gently slid it up over her knees. She gasped.

The gash in her knee was red and raw, looking more painful up  close . “Oh, darling, I’m so sorry,” Eve whispered, glancing up at the girl from the floor. Cassandra wouldn’t meet her gaze, tears  welling up in her own blue eyes. 

“S’not your fault,” the redhead murmured and Eve began to work on cleaning the wound with the antiseptic that she found in the first aid. It stung, and Cassandra accidentally let loose a whine of pain, biting on the cuff of her jumper all of a sudden to keep from making any more noises. 

“It’s okay, you’re being really brave,” Eve praised like she would tending to a younger child, she second-guessed her words after they had crossed her lips, but if Cassandra did mind, she didn’t show it. 

Baird found an ideal sized fabric, and held it in place with a well-wrapped bandage. “There, it’s all good,” she spoke, approving of her own handiwork once she had tied the knot, and Cillian finally looked down with a tiny smile.

“Where did you learn how to do that?” she asked weakly, almost as if she had been near to crying.

Eve packed up the first aid kit with a grin, “I wanted to join the army originally, I took a medics course which taught me all the basics,” she explained, finally getting to her feet, and offered both of her hands to help the girl up too.

“Is that why you’re so good at shooting clay pigeons?” Cillian asked, taking her baby-sitters hands and wobbled to her feet. Her knee didn’t hurt so much  anymore . 

Eve laughed, so warm and bright that bubbles formed in the young girls' chest. Was she supposed to feel like that? “I suppose so?” the woman shrugged, shaking her head slightly. “Now, how about I unpack the shopping and then you can tell me more about this synaesthesia while you do your homework?” Baird offered and Cassandra was taken aback.

Nobody took an interest in her quirky ability before. They just labelled her as a freak and teased her relentlessly. “Thank you, Miss Baird- I mean- Eve,” she quickly corrected, a soft blush painting her cheeks. 

“It’s my pleasure. Oh, and Cassandra, if anything happens at school... I’m here if you need to talk to me, I’m not a therapist, but I do want to be your friend,” Eve spoke again, weaving her sweet kindness in with her authority; sounding as though Cassandra didn’t have a choice but to let the blonde know if she was being bullied. 

The redhead nodded softly, a timid smile growing on her lips. “You  _ are _ my friend Eve,” she assured, sighing softly before deciding to help and unpack the groceries.


	3. Chapter 3

Cassandra skipped down the stairs leading herself entirely on the smell of waffles cooking in the toaster. She had dressed in a sapphire, blue skirt showing off mostly translucent, white tights considering her skirts rarely passed her thighs. She paired the skirt off with a small white shirt with blue flowers patterning the fabric, and she’d pulled a short, white denim jacket over the outfit to finish the look. 

“Good morning Evie! Sweet dreams?” the redhead asked as she crossed to the fridge and poured herself a glass of apple juice, her cheery demeanour instantly warming up the older woman who turned around, struggling to maintain the beam on her lips. She had to stop  herself from laughing as  Cillian stood on her tiptoes to put the carton back on the top shelf of the fridge. 

“Evie?” she chuckled, trying to remember the last time that someone had called her by that nickname, it must have been college, surely. Baird didn’t ridicule the girl, and answered her question instead. “Sure, I guess I  _ did _ have sweet dreams,” she figured before plating up the waffles, handing a plate to Cassandra, “You look pretty,” she added, and instantaneously wondered where the hell that had come from?!

Cass blushed scarlet, sitting down at the table, murmuring a very quiet “thank you,” as she coated her waffle in syrup. Baird sat opposite with her own plate and a cup of coffee. She hadn’t meant for those words to come out of her mouth; but Cassandra did look pretty; she had legs for days, and besides, the redhead’s wardrobe was crazy but cute, and Eve liked it.

“I have a question, about school, if that’s okay?” The woman asked tentatively, and Cassandra just nodded, too engrossed in her breakfast. “Do the other students know? About your tumour?” she asked softly.

Cassandra shook her head, swallowing her bite of food, “No, I mean, I told Jake and Zeke, the rest of the school knows I need to take time off sometimes, for hospital visits, but they don’t know it’s a tumour, not that I want to give them another reason to mock me,” she muttered, cutting her waffle into little squares. Baird just nodded, cutting into her own breakfast.

“Do you want a lift to school again today?” Eve eventually asked, and  Cillian glanced up, a spot of syrup coating her bottom lip. It was obvious to the girl that the blonde woman was unsure about letting her walk to school alone, considering that she saw the incident yesterday. The last thing she needed was another over-protective parent, but her babysitter's car was cool, so she nodded anyway.

“Yep, plea-, if- don't mind,” she spoke around a forkful of waffle and Eve couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Cassandra, honey, you’ve got syrup on your mouth,” the older woman laughed, gently blowing the surface of her coffee so that it would cool faster. The redhead stuck out her tongue and tried to lick the corners of her lips. 

“Did I get it?” she asked innocently which just made the woman laugh even more.

“Nope, try further down,”. Cassandra swept her tongue across her lip again, missing the spot entirely, “A bit left,” Eve orienteered, and Cass was suddenly tilting her head trying to follow Baird’s rather simple instruction. “Oh, just come here,” with that exasperated comment, the older woman leant across the kitchen table and wiped the spot of syrup from the girls' bottom lip with the soft pad of her thumb. 

Cillian didn’t know what to expect, but the second that Eve gently touched her lips made her heart jolt, and she froze to the chair, not daring to breathe. Her ears grew awkwardly warm and she smiled almost giddily to herself. “Thank you, Eve,” she whispered, finishing her waffle in relative silence. 

* * *

When Eve parked outside of the school yet again, Cass almost leant over to place a chaste kiss on the driver's cheek; used to parting that way with her dad every day. He would make sure she had her bag and her lunch and she’d give him a kiss on the cheek every morning without fail.  Cillian jostled in her seat, and turned, leaning towards Eve before reality slapped her in the face. “Thanks for the ride,” she smiled and exited the car, trying to regain her dignity. 

“If you need me to pick you up after, call me,” Eve exclaimed, before the redhead could shut the door.

“I don’t have your number,” Cassandra said almost disheartened, and the blonde laughed, holding out her hand, “Oh right,” the girl whispered, fiddling in her pockets for her phone. She unlocked the device and handed it across to the blonde. When Baird gave her back her phone, she had a new contact under, ‘Eve’ with the extra addition of a penguin emoji.  Cillian loved it. 

“Have a good day,” Baird called out and Cass shut the door, surprised to see Jake and Ezekiel waiting at the bottom of the stairs for her; she skipped over and linked her arms around both of theirs.

“Hey guys! You didn’t have to wait for me,” the girl beamed, smiling between her best friends. 

“Well, we didn’t want  ya ta run into any trouble so early in the day.” Ezekiel joked, but she knew he meant well, he always did. They were here to make sure she would get to class safely without fear of getting shoved to the ground again, “Say, who’s the hot blonde?” he grinned and Cass glanced over at the car that was still parked.

“Eve,  y’know , my babysitter,” she whispered.

Jake whistled softly, “Damn, I think I’ve been cared for by the wrong babysitters, I want yours,” Stone nudged into her side and Cassandra couldn’t help but laugh. Her laughter fell short when her path was blocked by a girl with awfully smug grin. “Come on, get out our way,” Jake spoke as  the brown-haired girl  crossed her arms on the step right in front of them. 

“Oh, poor Cassie, do your boyfriends know that you’re a big dyke?” the girl teased and  Cillian’s cheeks flared up.

“Oi, leave her alone,” Ezekiel ordered, not even letting of his best friends' arm. The same boy who had shoved her the day before sauntered over and put his arm around the girl.

“Leave it, Kate, this nerd isn't worth it,” he chuckled and led the brunette girl back to their group of friends who were all giggling. Finally, the bell rang, and the trio walked together all the way to the Computer suite. This was one of the reasons why Thursdays were her favourite days, she spent the whole morning with her friends, and then in the evening she had her advanced mathematics, history and Physics.

She settled in her seat, getting out her book. For a minute or two, the girl zoned out, drawing little spirals and patterns in the margin. Just for a moment, Cassandra thought she heard her name, but it didn’t really register, she had learnt to ignore when people were talking about her. She couldn’t ignore it, however, when Ezekiel bumped his elbow into her arm.

“Cass," he hissed softly, "Isn’t that your babysitter?”.

Dread seeped into her veins. It better not have been. Perhaps there was some substitute with blonde hair, and captivating blue eyes. But she knew it was impossible, if any teacher looked like Eve Baird, she would have known. Sure enough, the woman was standing outside of the door in that stylish black suit, quietly whispering with the teacher. 

Cassandra slunk further into her chair when Eve entered the classroom, and  Cillian held her breath. What was she doing here? 

The blonde cleared her throat, catching the attention of the rest of the class; some boys hollered and Cass almost glowered. Eve was not the type of person to be hollered at. She was a woman, a woman worthy of actual respect. Her anger at the boys at the back of the class almost distracted her from the fear that came hand in hand with the fact that Eve was here; at her school.

“Alright, I want everyone to listen, listen hard and listen good. I’ve recently been alerted to a couple of disturbing events going on in this school, especially by some of the people in this class.” Eve reprimanded. The redhead tore her glance towards Jake and Ezekiel who were just as stunned as she was. 

This could not be happening. 

“Bullying is a serious thing, with serious affects and serious consequences. You think you’re hard for pushing a girl down the stairs? What are you twelve?” There was some disgruntled mumbling from the back of the class, and Cassandra shrunk even further down in her chair, trying to make herself as unnoticeable as possible. 

“Verbal and physical abuse has actual charges, and you’re so lucky that I’m not going to press them.” Eve continued into the stunned silence of the classroom. “I am currently acting as Cassandra’s guardian,” Cassandra did not want to exist right now. She just wished that the earth would open and swallow her up. “And it’s been brought to my attention that some of you are actually going out of your way to hurt her... what kind of sick people do you have to be to target a sick girl?”.

God no. Please do not say it. No. Eve. No. Cass was almost on the edge of her seat. Please no.

“Cassandra has a brain tumour, and you’re making her life so much harder as if it wasn’t hard enough.” Silent tears spilled from the redhead's eyes, and she yanked her bag up from off the floor, and hurriedly ran from the classroom, not even caring about the repercussions.

She ran down the two flights of stairs, unsure where her feet were taking her, she just had to get away from that classroom, away from Eve. She spotted the girls bathrooms and shoved open the door, making a beeline for the very end stall, the only one that didn’t want her to die.  Cillian sat down on the closed toilet lid, and let the pent-up emotion in her chest fall loose in thick sobs.

After about thirty seconds, the door to the bathroom swung open, and the tell-tale sounds of Eve’s boots sounded on the floor, stopping right outside of the occupied stall. 

“Cassandra?” Baird’s voice was soft and filled with regret as she let her knuckles hammer softly on the door. Eve stood awkwardly. She knew it had been a risk to try and get the students off of  Cillian’s back, but it had all backfired, she had left a class of stunned and silent teenagers, while the one teen that she actually cared about went and locked herself in the lavatory. 

The sobs coming from inside the cubicle were heart-wrenching, and the blonde instantly knew that she had made a terrible mistake. Her head fell forward with a soft _thump_ , against the door, closing her eyes slightly. “Cassandra I am so _so_ sorry,” she expressed, leaning against the door before awkwardly shifting to sit in the cubicle adjacent, not bothering with closing the door. “I just didn’t want them to hurt you anymore,”.

Cass wiped her eyes, just for more tears to take their place, dripping down her cheeks. “I didn’t want them to know, because even if they’re some of the worst people in the world, they never look at me like I’m broken,” the redhead sniffled, and more tears fell. “I was alright just getting bullied like any  _ normal _ geeky girl,”. 

Eve glanced to the side, wishing that she could see the girl, comfort her and dry her tears. It was then that she noticed the graffiti scarring the wall. 

Cassandra Killian yourself.

C.C. is a nerd. 

Cassandra is a Dyke. 

Die Bitch. 

One right after the other, and this time, Eve teared up, wanting to erase every threat and crude message from every stall. This wasn’t fair, Cassandra was so charming and sweet; she was the last person to deserve this kind of torture. And she had just gone and made it worse. 

Eve sighed, blinking away her tears, “Cassie, I am so sorry, I really am, I just wanted to try and help-”.

“Well stop! Stop trying to help! You can’t!” Cassandra yelled back with the tone of an animal in pain, and somehow, that hurt Baird more than the girl's words did. “You can’t help me, nobody can. Okay? I’m untreatable, and not just because of my tumour.” the sentences come through with broken sobs attached, and Cassandra can barely see the floor through the blurry tears in her eyes.

“I couldn’t sit by and do nothing when I could see people hurting you!” Eve argued, biting down on her lip.

“Why not? It's easy, pretend like everything’s fine! If you need lessons, ask my parents!” Cass sobbed into her hands and Eve couldn’t just sit there and listen. She hadn’t realised how deeply this had hurt the girl; she hadn’t even realised how much she cared about her, until her cries were too heart-breaking to listen to. 

She stood up and rounded back to the door, knocking again. “Let me in,”.

“No,” the redhead sniffled.

“Cassandra  Cillian , you open this door right now,” Baird used her authoritative  voice and after a couple of painful seconds, the lock slid open, and the door swung inwards, revealing a broken Cassie, wiping away her tears with the cuff of her jacket. Eve moved forward, shutting the door behind her again, and leant against it. 

“Look, I really am sorry. I really just wanted them to leave you alone... you don’t deserve any of this, Cass... you’re amazing, and talented, and wonderful,” Baird explained quietly, pulling a handkerchief from the inside of her blazer, handing it to the girl, Cassandra took it tentatively, and dried her eyes again.

“Why do you care so much? Nobody else does,” she whispered, still clutching the handkerchief in between her hands. Her round blue eyes were still glossy with unshed tears, and the way that she stared up at Eve made the taller woman break a little. 

She fished around inside her head for the right words, “You’re special; and I’m not just saying it... you really are, and nobody should have to suffer like this, least of all you,” Baird answered honestly, offering a small, but candid smile as she stepped forward yet again, and brushed Cassandra’s loose red curls back behind her ears. 

She sniffled again, trying to compose herself and trying not to admit that that was the nicest thing anybody had ever said to her. 

“I’m sorry I yelled at you, ” Cass whispered , suddenly ashamed of her outburst , but Eve just shook  her head softly .

“It's alright,  I' m sorry for  embarrassing you in front of your class....now , come here,” the blonde smiled gently, opening her arms to the girl who  stood up and instantly wrapped her arms firmly around the woman’s middle. She was the perfect height for Baird to hold her close whilst Cassandras  buried her  nose softly into the woman's chest . 

Cillian practically hummed in delight, Eve smelt like coconut  and star-fruit,  and she couldn't help but feel safe in the older  woman's strong and comforting embrace.  They must have stayed like that for some time, but neither really minded, until Baird  pulled back slightly and the redhead tried her hardest not to pout.

“Say...”  Eve began with a gentle smirk twitching in the  corners of her pink lips. “Why don't we ditch school for today and  maybe go somewhere to take your mind off things... like the movies?”  she offered and Cassandra struggled with words. 

“B-but my dad said-"  the teen began.

“I’m electing to ignore your father  for today. He put me in charge, so I get to make the rules. ” The blonde remarked, still wearing her smug grin which  contagiously caught onto Cassandra’s lips as well like a radiant fever. “So, what do you say?” Eve arched a brow, teasing the girl with her temptation . 

Cillian pretended to think for a moment, “I say yes!” she giggled, the smile growing into her rose-coloured cheeks, and minutes later, Baird was talking with the man at the desk about taking Cassandra out of school for the rest of the day. He looked tired, and the redhead wouldn’t have been surprised if he even cared whether or not she left the school premises. She took her phone out of her pocket and sent a text to her best friends saying that she was going home for the rest of the day, and not to panic. 

She got an instant reply from Ezekiel; who was never off his phone.

** Zeke: I never panic Cass. Nobody’s really saying much bout what just happened... be  ** ** safe  ** ** tho ** **. X **

Cassandra stared out the passenger-side window has the town passed by, glancing down old streets and routes that she had memorised by the time she was five. Further into the outskirts, she saw the road that Jones lived, and a couple of sketchy looking shops that always had at least one window boarded up; probably thanks to Ezekiel himself. 

After a couple of minutes and a couple more turns; Cillian was losing sense of her surroundings, the familiar slowly blending with unknown territory, and soon; the redhead didn’t have a clue where she was, which would have scared her had Eve not been sitting beside her, so relaxed behind the wheel. Her babysitter had asked if the girl trusted her, to which Cass instantly had said Yes. 

Baird stole a quick glance over to teen, whose leg was softly bouncing with an unspoken anxiety, or perhaps just out of habit, either way, she spoke over the quiet music on her car. “I'm going to take you out for lunch, my treat for messing up your school life, but first, there's someone that I want you to meet,” the blonde assured with a warm but subtle grin residing on her features. 

If the  new scenery hadn’t been  subconsciously playing up in  Cillian's mind ,  Eve's later statement certainly was,  and her mind raced with the possibilities which both excited and unnerved the redhead. 

Who could Eve possibly want her to meet?  A friend?  Maybe a family  member?  Perhaps the  woman had a  boyfriend somewhere, and for some reason that thought made her stomach lurch with a queasy feeling.  Or maybe, just maybe, Baird was a secret  spy, gaining Intel whilst posing as a harmless babysitter, and had been playing her all along.  Cassandra  brainstormed in silence,  unable to figure which scenario was the worst. 

The car slowly pulled to a stop in a  rather fancy driveway; it wasn't exactly spectacular, but the exterior alone was expensive looking, and the neighbourhood  looked safe and charming; the perfect kind of life that only  movie people get to live in. 

“Is this your house? It’s huge!” Cass wondered out loud with awe laced into her voice as she exited the car, seemingly forgetting all her previous doubts. Eve could only laugh softly at the girls’ reaction. She hadn’t really though that her place was anything more than ideal

“ Yes, it's mine, otherwise this would be considered illegal, ” Baird  let a chuckle resonate within her throat,  as she unlocked the door and held it open for the young redhead to step inside. She did so with  fascination swimming in those extraordinary blue eyes , glancing around at everything the moment she stepped across the threshold and into the hall, living room on the left, stairs dead ahead, and dining room on the right.  Cassandra didn't even register the soft  _ ‘ _ _ wow _ _ ’ _ that escaped her lips. 

Eve didn't decorate much, most of the rooms were bare except for the necessary furniture and the odd table. Her shelves held a couple of books, and a single plant that an ex co-worker had bought her simply because it was practically impossible to kill. Eve tugged off her black blazer jacket.

"I've left my cat with an automatic food and water dispenser whilst I'm away this week , but I still drop in to say hi,”  the blonde explained and suddenly, Cassandra felt a ginormous weight drop from her shoulders. 

Eve wanted her to meet her cat!

“Oh!” Cass breathed, instantly looking around for the creature. “I love cats!”. Now that she understood the circumstance, the redhead couldn’t help but feel a little silly for fretting for the majority of the journey,

“ Cap? Where are you  girl ? ” Baird called,  taking off her boots and  Cillian hurried to follow suit, leaving her shoes neatly by the door.

“ Cap? ” the girl echoed with confused captivation.

“Her real name is Captain Marmalade,” Baird explained with a tender blush that turned into a playful gasp of shock when the redhead snickered softly. “Don’t you dare mock me Cassandra Cillian! You'll see what I mean,”. 

As if right on cue, a tiny ball of orange fluff fell down the stairs, landing  unsteadily on its tiny paws , mewling before wonkily tumbling over to weave around Eve’s ankles.  “Eve Baird! That is not a cat! That’s a kitten! Oh my- she's beautiful!”  Cass squealed excitedly , watching the  fluff ball fall around  over the other woman’s feet. “Does she only-" .

Captain only just realized that her mother brought home a friend, and hobbled over to rub her chin over Cassandras ankles. “Yes, she was born with only three legs. I adopted her from a rescue a few months ago. They said nobody wanted her because of her disability, but I wanted her, so she came home with me ,” Eve retold with a soft grin.

“Captain... like a pirate with a missing leg,” she figured, “Can I  pet her?” Cillian asked, glancing back to Eve, her eyes were practically begging the older woman to let her play with the cat, and the blonde nodded.

“ Of course you can, darling,”. Cassandra squeaked with excitement, and found a spot in the living room floor where she knelt down and dragged a piece of string with a stuffed mouse attached to the end, across the carpet. Marmalade wobbled around, batting the toy with her singular front paw, almost as eager to play as the redhead was. “Would you like a drink?” Baird asked and Cass tore her gaze away from the feline for half of a second.

“Can I have some water please?” the girl smiled and Eve nodded, that infectious grin catching onto her own lips.

When the blonde returned to the living room with a glass of water, she walked in on a tiny kitten trying to fit a stuffed mouse into its mouth, whilst Cassandra softly scratched behind her ears, whispering soft rhetorical questions. “Aren’t you so beautiful? Who couldn’t love you? Are you the best kitty? Who’s the most adorable girl in the whole wide world?” Eve probably could have answered that last one, but it wouldn’t have been the cat. 

“I’m just going to change quickly; do you mind keeping Cap entertained for a while?” Baird inquired, setting down the glass. Cassandra giggled softly and looked at the woman as if she had asked if the girl minded figuring out a simple algebra equation. 

She shook her head anyway, “I don’t mind,”.

Eve didn’t really think that her smart black trousers and blazer, with a crisp white shirt matched the situation. If she was going to spend the rest of the day out with Cassandra, she wanted to dress casual, and more comfortable, instead of sticking out dressed like a business woman. 

After what felt like forever debating her few outfit choices, Baird found a comfortable set of olive cargo pants and a plain black t-shirt. Unlike her protégé, Eve didn’t care much about her clothing. As long as it fit, and was practical, it was okay. But even then, she had some kind of vendetta against short skirts and dresses. She liked them when Cassandra wore them, but not her. 

She had been told by so many men that she would be more desirable if she showed more skin, or dressed a bit more feminine. Eve stuck her middle finger up at feminine. 

The older woman silently returned to the living room, pausing in the doorway at the sight that greeted her. Cassandra sat cross-legged in the middle of the floor, humming a soft, sweet lullaby to the kitten that was curled up, fast asleep in her lap whilst she stroked the feline’s ginger fur. 

Eve took out her phone and snapped a photo, just as Cassie glance up with a smile and Baird hurried to justify  herself. “I hope you don’t mind... it was just really cute and-”.

“I don’t mind,” the redhead sweetly answered, grinning up at her baby sitter. “You should really get in on this action, though, it’d be adorable,” with that, Cillian softly patted the space beside her on the floor. Eve thought twice, and sat down anyway, and both women smiled genuinely at the camera; Cassandra’s eyes were bright and beautiful, and Eve took the photograph.

Baird gasped silently, seeing how much of a happy family they looked, and Cass softly caught her cherry-glossed bottom lip between her teeth, “You need to send me that picture,”.

“But I don’t have your number,” the blonde gently teased with the same words and the same tone that Cassandra had used earlier in the day, they both laughed softly, and the girl took Eve’s phone with an almost cheeky grin, adding in her own number. She scrolled forever, before handing back the phone.

Eve’s phone now had a contact: Cass. With a ginger cat and a  love heart beside her name.


	4. Chapter 4

It had taken too long to persuade Cassandra to say goodbye to the feline. The conversation went something like: 

We should probably get going. 

Nope. 

It’s past twelve, aren’t you hungry? 

Starving. 

So... should we get some lunch? 

Nope. 

Eventually, Captain Marmalade woke up, probably because of the back-and-forth bickering, and fell out of Cassandra’s lap with a tiny, but fierce yawn, before wobbling over to her food bowl. Eve could only smirk smugly at the situation, leaving Cillian with no further argument as to why they couldn’t leave, but her grin vanished when the girl’s glossed lips turned into a pout. “Hey, it’s okay, you can come over and see her whenever you’d like,” Baird offered, and the redhead lit up again, like a Christmas tree. 

“Really?” Cassie’s smile illuminated the rest of her face, her eyes full of hope. 

Eve nodded, “Really really,” she smiled, grabbing a black, button-up coat, and she couldn’t help but let her smile grow further into her cheeks when Cassandra carefully picked up the kitten, and nuzzled her gently, leaving a tiny kiss on its tiny, wet nose. 

“I’ll see you again soon, Captain Marmalade. You’re a strong little girl, and you look after your mommy,” the redhead whispered before letting the cat down. By this point, Baird’s smile was plastered onto her face. 

* * *

True to her word, Eve bought lunch for them both at a cosy diner, where each table was enclosed in a little booth, with a soft golden glow from the single light that hung over each. Both sat with a burger and fries, Cassie with a strawberry milkshake, and Eve with her chocolate. Even though the earlier events had been somewhat traumatic for the girl, this was slowly working its way up to being an amazing day. 

“Why didn’t you join the army?” Cassandra asked out of the blue, startling the blonde as she bit into a fry. The shock must have stayed present on her face, because Cillian laughed softly, sounding like a brook flowing merrily through the woods; a tiny waterfall of joy. “Yesterday, you said you wanted to join the army, and that you took medical courses for it... why didn’t you join?” she developed the question, and Eve had swallowed her fry. 

“Actually, I did, I served for four years on the West Coast,” Baird answered softly, surprised that the girl had even remembered that small snippet of conversation. 

Cassandra’s lips made a small ‘o’ shape. Why was her baby sitter getting more and more interesting? “So what happened? Didn’t you like it?”. 

“Truth is, I loved it. Being in the army was what I had wanted to do since I was fifteen. Over two years of being an official cadet, I worked my way up to Lieutenant, then Captain, then Major, until I became Colonel,” Eve explained and she almost laughed at the amazement that was written on the girls face. “I felt like I belonged there, but some soldiers didn’t agree with having a woman in charge. They would question my orders, and deliberately disobey me,”. She sighed. 

“You should have kicked their asses!” Now it was Eve’s turn to look shocked, and Cass shrugged, “What? I can say ass,” she paused, a genuine smile creeping back onto her lips as she learnt more about the woman sitting opposite her over milkshakes. “Do you miss it?”. 

Baird swallowed, it wasn’t a yes or no question, but Cillian waited expectantly with a brilliant smile, “I miss feeling like I’m contributing to something worthwhile. I miss having that sense of order and purpose. But I would never want to go back, women don’t get respect, whether they’re in charge or not,”. 

Cassandra gulped down more of her milkshake, listening wholeheartedly to the ex-Colonel. “You’re a badass, you should have all the respect in the world!” she enthused, making the blonde chuckle quietly, shaking her head. “I mean it, Eve, you’re incredible!”. 

“Thank you, darling, but I’m not really that person anymore.” Baird smiled warmly as Cassandra ate another big mouthful of fries. 

“Mmh, this is _so_ good,” she hummed in delight, smiling around her bite of food. “Thank you for this. I’ve never been taken out for lunch before,” Cillian admitted with another easy grin, her blue eyes sparkling. Her parents had stopped taking family dinners out after Cassandra was nine, figuring out that her time was better spent doing revision and pointless math. 

Not to mention that she was never allowed to go out with her friends to dinners if her parents didn’t know where the location was. And then miraculously, she wasn’t allowed to go out if she had an exam the next day; her parents were always looking for excuses not to let her out the house. 

“What?” Eve sounded in surprise. Never? “Not even as a date?”. 

The girl blushed ever so slightly. “I’ve never been on a date before,” she confessed, her gaze falling to her plate in slight embarrassment. 

“What?!” Baird was even more shocked by the latter statement that she was by the first, and Cassandra couldn’t understand what the big deal was. “I’m sorry? How is that even possible? How has a smart, beautiful, incredible girl like yourself never been on a date before?” Eve wondered aloud, blinking in astonishment. 

The redhead tried to hide the blush that crept into her cheeks for a number of reasons; this was a discussion topic that Cassandra hadn’t planned on covering, leaving her rather dumbfounded; plus, her baby sitter said that she was beautiful _and_ incredible, and that was a blush-worthy compliment. 

“I guess nobody has ever liked me enough to ask me out,” Cillian muttered with a half-hearted shrug. She had thought about it before, usually at night when she couldn’t sleep, debating the many crisis’ that the world faced, and somewhere in her deep thoughts, Cass would wonder if anybody would ever dare to love someone like her. 

Eve chewed a bite of her burger and swallowed. “What about those two boys in your class?”. 

Cassandra coughed at the idea, “Jake and Ezekiel? They’re like my brothers, besides, I couldn’t ever think of them like that,”. They were too much like a family, and then there was the whole _other_ reason. 

“So...” Baird began, dwindling on the word that she dragged out whilst figuring out how to place her next words, “If you’ve never been on a date... have you ever been kissed?” she asked, purely out of intrigue, finding herself adoring the way that Cillian’s cheeks grow a deeper shade of red. There were a few seconds of silence, “I’m sorry, you don’t have to-”. 

“No,” Cassie answered suddenly, feeling the warmth in her ears. “Well, not really. Zeke kissed me once, on a dare... but I refuse to acknowledge that childish game as my first.” she stated, pushing a fry around her plate with a fork, not daring to look up at Eve. “It’s funny, I always thought I’d have had my first kiss by the time I’m eighteen,” the redhead sighed, finally glancing back up, her gaze connecting with soft, blue eyes. “But I’m running out of days,”. 

“You’re running out of Prince Charming’s too,” the blonde commented with an easy smile as her eyes lingered on the red-haired girl who grew increasingly awkward and unsettled, the blush in her cheeks spreading even more. 

“A-actually... I always hoped my Prince Charming might be a Princess,” Cassandra whispered sheepishly. 

“Oh,” Eve muttered. 

_Oh!_

After a moment of silence that had settled roughly between them; Eve let a warm and loving smile take over her lips once again, her eyes smiling too, “You know, that’s more than okay, Princes are overrated anyway,” Baird assured sweetly. 

Cassandra felt the weight of a boulder fly loose from her stomach, and her nervous grin brightened until she was beaming ecstatically. There was no controlling the soft bubbles that her stomach was blowing to her heart. She sat, eating a couple of fries with an award-winning grin on her lips, before she spoke again, “Eve?”. 

The blonde glanced up, with a similar smile, “Yes darling?”. 

Cillian swallowed again, with an awkward kind of smile, “I haven’t actually told my parents yet...” she let the sentence hang unfinished in the air, and she was thankful that Baird didn’t need the extra words to understand what she was saying, 

“Don’t worry, Cassandra, I won’t say a word,”. The older woman promised, and Cassie smiled again. Eve tried to ignore the fact that such a simple, but beautiful grin made her stomach tie itself in knots like unattended earphones, all because of one teenage girl 

* * *

Cillian was hit by a sudden dizzy spell the second that they walked through the doors and into the foyer at the theatre, and Eve hurried to steady her, firm hands catching a hold of Cassandra's arms whilst the girl blinked, almost ashamed. “Cass are you alright?” Baird asked instantly, worried for the girl. 

“Oh,” she muttered, “It’s smells like linear equations,” the redhead spoke softly, batting away the diagrams and calculations that her hotwired brain had linked with her sensory overload. Eve couldn’t pretend that she understood the girls synaesthesia fully, but regardless she found it somewhat fascinating. Apparently linear equations smelt like freshly made buttered popcorn. 

If she knew what it was like for calculations to smell as good as popcorn, Eve bet that she would've paid a lot more attention in math class. 

“Do you need to sit down?” the blonde asked, and Cillian shook her head softly from side to side. 

“No, it’s okay, I’m fine... it’s funny, they always used to smell like toast...” she assured, but Eve didn’t let go of her until she was sure that Cass was really alright. 

Baird was a huge movie fan; she would go almost every week to see a new film that was being released; or a replay of one of her favourites. It never bothered her that she went alone, she did a lot of things alone; but she had always been an independent woman. She blamed her independent-ness when she realised that most of the tickets on sale where to movies that she had already seen; except one, which Cassandra was also excited to see. 

The redhead had informed her that it was a retell of one of her books, and that it would be good, so trusting her judgement, Eve bought two tickets and a bucket of linear-equation smelling popcorn. 

The theatre screen was mostly empty; considering it was a Thursday afternoon, and this movie had already been out for several weeks, they were the only people in the room aside for a couple near the very front and a single person in the back row, they had the whole middle section to themselves. 

Cassandra held the popcorn bucket on her lap, and the blonde would reach over and steal a couple of pieces every few minutes. More than twice, their fingers brushed against each other in that dramatic cliché, as they both reached for popcorn at the same time; every time they would laugh and giggle quietly until Eve finally stated, “We ought to be watching a romance movie if this continues,”. 

Cillian blushed ever-so-slightly, apologising _again_ for nudging her hand. “Well, it kind of is, I mean, it’s an old fairy tale, there are always romantic aspects in fairy tales,” she whispered, and the movie began. They finished the whole bucket of popcorn in the first half of the movie. 

Without the constant soft crunching of popcorn, Eve finally heard soft whispers coming from the seat beside her. Cass would mutter something under her breath before realising that she was talking, and suddenly she’d get quiet again. It happened a bunch of times when she would argue with the film sets, saying maybe four words before falling silent. 

Cassandra clearly didn’t want to bother Eve whilst trying to watch a movie, so whatever bothered the girl came out in half a sentence before she quickly shut herself up, mentally berating herself. 

On the eight time, Cassandra put her hand over her mouth to physically stop her words leaving her lips, and Eve shifted in her chair to look at the girl, “Cassandra, what’s happening?”. 

“Oh Eve, I’m so sorry. I know you just want to watch the movie, but I’m the _worst_ person to watch films with! I can’t help but notice all the little errors that don’t line up and I’m just used to casually saying them out loud, I’m so sorry,” the redhead apologised, sheepishly sighing as she glanced at the screen again. 

_Right,_ Baird thought, _Cassandra was a genius, of course she’d notice the little things._ Regardless, the blonde smiled brightly, “It’s alright, Cass, there’s no need to apologise, what did you see?”. 

“The ceiling is a fake,” Cassandra blurted out as if it had been an important secret that she had been keeping for years. Honestly, looking back at the screen, Baird wasn’t able to tell at all; it looked real enough. 

“How do you know?” the blonde whispered back; she could see that the girl was itching to explain, and the second that she had opened that door; answers came flooding through it. 

“They claim the ceiling to be made out of marble, but the general price for marble is around seventy-five dollars per square foot, the ballroom you can tell is thirty-nine meters by twenty one meters by the steps that the butler takes which is nine hundred square meters, which is nine-thousand-six-hundred and eighty-seven square feet which is seven –hundred-twenty-six-thousand-five-hundred and twenty-five dollars for the ceiling. The movie doesn’t have that kind of budget.” Cassandra started to explain in a hurried whisper, flicking through the equations that only appeared in front of her eyes. 

“If they were to make a real ceiling, it would have been porcelain with a marble effect which is a lot cheaper, but porcelain tiles would weigh four and half pounds per square meter, that’s over four thousand pounds of porcelain standing on four columns that hold everything up, when in reality those columns would be able to withstand about two-hundred pounds each, so if the ceiling weighed any more than one-thousand five hundred, it would collapse,”. 

Finally, out of breath, Cass finished, a blush sweeping her cheeks, she hadn’t meant to ramble, but she couldn’t help that her brain picked out these sort of useless facts, Eve just stared at her like she was amazing. 

“That’s fantastic,” Baird complimented and the redhead just shrugged, trying to turn her attention back to the film. 

“No it isn’t, I want to be able to watch something without constantly picking it apart and talking about it, I don’t want to be the one that always talks during the film,” she fretted, biting softly on her bottom lip and Eve thought for a moment. 

She held her hand out for Cassandra to take. 

“Here, hold my hand, and when you notice something is wrong, you can squeeze my hand, so effectively, you’re telling me that the film is incorrect without saying a word,” Baird offered with a genuine grin and Cillian blinked with surprise; nobody had offered her a coping mechanism like that before. 

“Are you sure?” she whispered, Eve quietly laughed. 

“Of course,”. With that, Cassandra gently took a hold of Eve’s hand, almost nervously squeezing it the first couple of times when she noticed that a set didn’t line up; but then she was softly squeezing her hand instinctively, and Baird couldn’t help the smile on her lips when they were watching a scene and all of a sudden Cass would squeeze her hand when her genius brain found a loophole. 

There had to be only twenty minutes left to the movie, and Cassandra became increasingly aware of Bairds hand in her own. Her grip was soft yet firm, and warm. She liked the sensation, of feeling Eve’s fingers wrap delicately around her own, and her soft blue gaze tore away from the screen, and up towards her babysitter. 

Eve’s face was lit only by the soft, golden glow that the screen had to offer; her captivating eyes seemed to sparkle as they swallowed up the film. But it wasn’t her eyes that Cillian’s attention was stuck on. It was her lips. 

Her lips were pink like a rose-bud; and her cupid’s bow seemed far too enticing when she smiled. That smile was something else, Cassandra had never known a smile that made her feel happy about being alive. She couldn’t help but admire the older woman, whose lips looked softer than clouds, and she longed to know what they would feel like pushed against her own. 

She had been staring for goodness-knows how long, and Cillian forced her eyes back to the screen with a gigantic blush, and refused to let her gaze wander again until after the movie had ended. But she squeezed Baird hand a couple more times, not because she had worked out another calculation, but because the feel of Eve’s hand in hers made Cassandra feel on top of the world. 

* * *

The sky was gradually growing darker when they returned to Eve’s car to go home; and the redhead still hadn’t said a word; when the blonde had asked her about it, Cillian had only replied with the fact that she was tired; which Baird understood; it was late evening, and Cass had had a long day. 

“Thank you,” the girl piqued up as she sat in the passenger seat; her cheeks no longer as red as they were when they had left the theatre, and the blonde smiled sweetly. 

“It’s been my pleasure, Cassandra,” It had as well. Eve had truly had fun, and she was glad that she had finally been able to make up to the girl for the chaos she had caused. “Did you enjoy the movie?” she inquired, glancing across to the redhead who nodded ecstatically. 

“I did! There were parts that reminded me of my favourite collection, the fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderson. I loved those books so much, my mother donated them when I was thirteen, she said I was too old for fairy tales.” the teen rambled, as if making up for this whole time without a word. 

“I’m sorry” Eve muttered, learning more and more about Cassandra’s parents. But the girl didn’t hear her. 

“I loved the part with the ice-skating, that was so romantic. It reminded me of old winter holidays. My uncle had a cottage in the country with a lake out the back that froze over, and every year, my cousins would teach me, until I could skate by myself,” She explained, talking the whole drive home about the parts of the movie that she liked, and parts that had been missed from the book. 

The second that they got home, Cassandra realised how tired she actually was, and hugged Eve around the middle before wishing her a good night and crawling upstairs to her room. 

Baird had found herself sitting in the armchair in the living room for another hour before sleepiness washed over the blonde. Cillian was an enigma; truly, she was such a special girl, and it didn’t even take a genius to see that. Even her bad habits were adorable, and even though the older woman didn’t usually agree when people talked throughout a film, she couldn’t help but find Cassie and her problem-finding skills adorable. 

Eve’s legs felt like led as she climbed the stairs, nothing but silence and darkness awaiting her. She silently pushed open the door to the redhead’s room, surprised to find a lamp still shining and she was about to tell the girl to get some sleep; but Cassandra had already taken that advice, curled up in her blankets, with one hand beneath her head, the other caught in the pages of a book that she had fallen asleep reading. 

Baird’s heart melted softly as she quietly crept into the room and slipped the book from Cillian’s grasp. She placed the _Fingersmith_ on Cassandra’s bedside table, before pulling the duvet up to her shoulders. 

Eve hesitated slightly as she hovered over the sleeping girl, before she leant forward and pressed a chaste, soft kiss to her forehead. 

“Sweet dreams,” she whispered, and turned off the light. 


	5. Chapter 5

A grey sky washed overhead like a once-white table cloth that had been worn over the years. The sky was the colour of the dark sea waves of ink, as they crash upon the shore and tenderly kiss the pebbles with a nearly white foam. It was also the colour of a white flag waving through a thick fog; and for some reason, that image felt relatable. 

Cassandra walked the usual path home from school with a skip in her step and her signature beam stretched upon her lips as her two best friends walked either side of her; their long strides stepping in time with her soft little bounces. They usually walked her home on a Friday, and would hang around at the park for an hour and joke about the week. 

“Was it just me, or did today seem... kind of normal?” Jake inquired, and the cowboy glanced across to his friends to see if they had also picked up on his vibe. Cassie glanced up with treasured blue eyes. 

“You mean, did you guys notice that nobody said a rude word to me today, or even pushed me down, or even stole my lunch tray? Yeah, I noticed,” the redhead shrugged despite the fact that a tiny grin was constantly teasing the edge of her lips. She couldn’t remember the last time that she went a whole day without her peers going out of their way to be mean. 

Zeke chortled. “I think ya might owe ya babysitter a big thanks, she really got those jerks off your case,” he smiled his usual goofy grin from ear to ear before laughing again. “I swear, some of the idiots in our class think you're contagious and won’t even come close to ya, one girl actually cried cause you smiled at her,”. 

“ _That’s_ what that was about?” Cillian giggled softly, shaking her head. “So wait... people are actually scared of me in case I infect them with tumouritis?” she joked, giggling again and Jake nodded, smiling as much as his friends. “Oh my gosh!” Cassandra exclaimed with a beam, “I always wanted to be scary!” with that, the girl skipped ahead, down the path whilst the boys just chuckled softly to themselves. 

“Hey, are you guys thinking about going on that trip with Mr Carsen?” Jake suddenly remembered. Their History teacher had booked a trip for fifty students in the two History classes, chaperoned by Carsen and Charlene, and as long as they had permission from a parent or guardian, they would get to leave school at ten on the Monday morning, and would be home for four the next day. 

“Are you kidding?” Ezekiel grinned, “That hotel looks super fancy, like Crystal door-knob fancy, course I'm going,”. Of course Jones never missed an opportunity where he could develop his sticky fingers. He once tagged along to one of Cassie’s science fairs because he saw an advanced motor on a boy’s working automatic wrapper... it was safe to say that it no longer worked after Ezekiel played with it. 

“Y’know, Cass ‘n I would be going for the actual museum... It’s an educational trip,” Jake pointed out, but the younger boy was too busy thinking up a way to sneak a chandelier out of a hotel in his travel bag to pay much attention, so Stone caught up with the redhead instead as they turned into their usual park. “Was everything okay yesterday? After you left school?”. Jake was always so thoughtful, and Cillian was sure that if she played for that team, she wouldn’t mind being with him. 

“Oh yeah, I actually didn’t go home, Eve took me to her place to see her kitten!” she smiled brighter than before as Zeke caught up as well, snickering. 

“Oh, please dear God let that be a euphemism!” He smirked, causing Cassie’s mouth to fall open in shock, instantly shaking her head. 

“What? No! Ezekiel!” she reprimanded, taken aback with the audacity. Why did he have to do that with the most seemingly innocent of words? He knew damn well that wasn’t what she had meant; and despite the fact the he was false, a fire-red blush rose in her cheeks like the sun itself. 

“It’s been ages since a girl has taken me home to see her kitten,” he continued, nudging into Jake before he plonked himself down on one of the swings. 

Cassandra rolled her eyes, sitting down cross-legged in the grass in front of them; she found something soothing about running her fingertips back and forth between those lush, green blades. “We are not having this conversation! Did we have any homework?” the redhead changed the subject altogether. 

Stone shook his head, “No but there was a pop quiz on aerodynamics,”. 

“Dammit!” Cillian expressed, a moody expression lingering on her features for two seconds, “I love pop quizzes.” the girl sighed, genuinely disheartened for missing out on a test; but then she remembered that she had been bonding with Eve at the time of the Quiz, and she knew which one she’d rather have been participating in. 

“So... you saw her cat?” Zeke prompted again, failing to hide his laughter under that impish grin. “Then what?”. 

The girl chewed delicately on her lower lip, before relaying the events to her best friends, “Well, she took me out for lunch, not like that! It was just to apologise for what happened in class, but I feel like I really got to know her a bit better. She was an army colonel!” she added enthusiastically, with a tight grin. 

Stone whistled, “Damn, do you think she likes you?”. 

“Well... I don’t think so, not now anyway and not like that... I told her. I told an almost stranger that I was a lesbian!” Cassandra cried out, as if only now she realised what a stupid idea that was; even though it didn’t feel stupid at the time, she sulked and petted the grass in front of her. 

“Hold the front fucken door,” Jake exhaled, eyes widened with surprise, “You’ve known us for twelve years, and it took you nine of them to come out to us! But this hot babysitter walks into your life and you tell her in nine hours!” he didn’t sound angry; but she could tell that he was trying to figure out how Eve had gotten her to open up so quickly. 

“It’s been more than nine hours.” Cillian muttered out loud, as if it was a game changer. 

“Cass! Ya like her!” Zeke retorted. 

The redhead couldn’t help but roll her eyes again; fairly sure she had said that they were not having this conversation. “Come on guys, you know me, I don’t _like_ like anyone, maybe I get small crushes here and there, but that’s it! Small, harmless, meaningless crushes,” Cassandra defended her honour. Okay, she liked Eve; the woman was smart, beautiful, really kind, and didn’t treat her like something that needed to be fixed; but it wasn’t anything serious, it couldn’t be. 

“Well... What did she say when you told her?” Jake asked, swinging ever so slightly beside Jones. Why were they so interested? 

Cass thought back to the previous day, shrugging softly before answering, “That boys were overrated,”. 

“Gay.” Both Ezekiel and Jake answered at the same time, with that tiny smirk lingering on their lips; they loved teasing their tiny best friend, but this was something new altogether. For the third time, Cillian rolled her eyes, and Stone jumped in to explain, “She wears suits!” 

“To defy men’s depiction of women. Girl don’t have to dress up for you,” she replied smugly. 

Zeke thought for a second, “She’s buff.” 

“Girls can work-out. Besides, not all lesbians are buff. Butch gays are a stereotype, I mean look at me!” Ezekiel had to acknowledge that his best friend had a valid point; he had lost twenty bucks to Jake when Cassie came out of the closet; he had been sure that her love for pretty colours and flowers and books had her pinned as a heterosexual. 

“She came to school to stop people bullying you.” Stone interjected, “Why would she do that if she didn’t like you?” he grinned, sure that the redhead couldn’t weasel her way out of this one. 

“Uhm... maybe because she’s a decent person, oh and also my babysitter.” she grinned proudly, Cassandra was shooting them down like they were her very own clay pigeons! For a moment, she wondered if Baird would be proud. 

“And you like her!” Jones finalized, and there was no way that Cass would be able to argue. 

“No! Yes! Maybe! But anyway, it doesn’t matter, it’s not like anything is going to happen,” she shrugged, eyes bluer than the sky fell to her lap, an aura of disappointment lingering around the girl like a personal cloud. 

“Tell the truth or you’re not getting your birthday presents!” Jake teased, and Cassandra glanced up suddenly with utter surprise. 

“You guys got me birthday presents!?” she didn’t know why she had sounded so shocked by the notion; her best friends had always gotten her a birthday present; it was her parents that didn’t always deliver. 

“Well not if ya don’t spill the beans!” Zeke pointed out and the redhead forced a long exhale to ghost past her lips softly. 

“Fine,” she mumbled; in all honesty, Cassandra hadn’t admitted the truth to herself yet, not wanting to open a door that she couldn’t go through. “I like her, and it might be more than a crush... nobody has ever made me feel so important; except for you guys,” she added quickly before they took offense, “She makes me feel like I matter; and that maybe, I do deserve better,” just saying it made it feel more real. 

Admitting her feelings just made them manifest like a virus in her heart. And even though her gaze fell yet again to the grass that shivered in the wind; her lips were smiling by themselves. 

* * *

Ezekiel played some music on his phone as he unloaded some of his backpack; before bringing out a pack of four bottles; Jake followed suit and brought out a six pack of beers, both grinning at the face that Cassie made in result. “How the heck did you sneak those into school!” she exclaimed, before wondering how they also fit their books and supplies in there too. 

“It’s your birthday Cass! And I know we probably won’t be able to celebrate with you tomorrow, cause of the rules and stuff, but it’s your eighteenth, so we need to celebrate in style,” Stone smiled and uncapped a beer before holding it out to his best friend. Being the oldest of them all, Jake had had his fair share of drinks, and had brought his favourite beer. And even though Jones was the youngest, he had been stealing liquor from his mother’s cabinet since he was five, just to prove that he could, and had developed an early taste. 

She took a tentative sip of the beer and her face went pale; she forced herself to swallow, her features instantly contorting in disgust; the boys laughed loud. “Ack! Jake how do you drink this stuff? It’s gross!” Cassandra gagged, sticking out her tongue. 

She handed Jake back the can and he took a swig. Ezekiel handed her a bottle which she cautiously eyed, not wanting to taste anything even remotely similar to what she just had in her mouth. A taste of berries sweetened her tongue. It tasted just like fruit, syrup, and cough medicine, and Cillian loved all three. After a small sip, the girl took a proper drink, nodding with approval, “I don’t mind this!”. She grinned and Ezekiel punched the air. 

“Yes! Jake, ya owe me ten!” he beamed, sticking out his hand for the money. 

Stone just stared at him like he was crazy, “No way, we didn’t even bet on this! That is extortion!” Cassie laughed and drank a little more from the bottle. Zeke just chuckled as well and reached for one of Jake’s beers instead. 

Cassandra was half-way through her second bottle when something landed in her lap, and she jumped, instantly coming to the conclusion that this was the end; it wasn’t, however, as dreadful as it seemed when she saw a small package tied with a half-hearted bow. She glanced up to see Ezekiel grinning like a nymph. 

“What? Ya didn’ think that the drinks were ya birthday gifts did ya?” his Australian accent always made the redhead grin, and she smiled back down at the present that she carefully unwrapped. Beneath its layers laid a necklace, clearly antique and definitely her style, it was a silver butterfly, and its wings stretched out elegantly. It was beautiful. 

“Zeke, this is gorgeous!” Cass traced the wings with a fingertip before her smile fell slightly, glancing up to the boy, “Wait did you steal this?” Before she accepted her gift, she had to know that she wasn’t wearing some elderly woman’s lost treasure. 

Mock offense flashed in Jones’ dark eyes, as he shook his head, “Uh, no, I most certainly did not! I mean I stole the last few bucks that I needed to buy it, but I bought it nonetheless!” You could tell when Ezekiel got real when he was using nonetheless in his defence. Cassandra smiled, and put on the jewellery. 

Jake reached for his bag almost ashamed as he handed her his backpack, “I couldn’t exactly wrap your present... I’m awful with Sellotape, and, this is a pretty hard... never mind, just open it,”. He grinned and the redhead did as she was told, unzipping his backpack. 

She gasped, and pulled out a very familiar award. 

It was glass, but beautifully made, she remembered clearly how the glass would curve off into two different shards and curl around the title, ‘Science Fair Winner, 2013’. Cassandra bit her lip softly and lifted the trophy to check the marbled base, with the letters C.C engraved into the bottom of it. 

“How...How did you get this?” she whispered, raw emotion creeping into her voice. 

Jake shuffled slightly, “I tracked down all the pawn shops in the area, and a couple just out of town as well; I put it on reserve, and worked with my dad’s business every weekend to save up... I know how much those things meant to you, y’know... before you mum...”. 

Cass quickly wiped away a tear, and smiled brightly, carefully putting down her award. She got up and hugged her best friends tightly. “I love you guys!” she admitted, with a grin plastered to her face. 

Cillian was almost finished her third bottle when a faint buzz alerted the girl of her phone's presence in her jacket pocket, she fished out the device, and an incoming text lit up her screen. 

**Eve: Where are you?**

Cassandra put down her bottle to reply, her blue eyes fixated on the phone, concentrating hard on the letters. ‘Hanging with Jake and Ezekiel,’. She sent the message, and looked up, laughing when Jake made a joke and the other boy fell off the swing. Another buzz vibrated in her hand and she checked her phone again. 

**Eve: Where at?**

She typed the word ‘Park’, and was just about to hit send when her best friends started to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ and Cassandra had to sing along, despite it was dedicate to her, and forgot all about the message she had meant to send. 

* * *

They walked Cassie home, it wasn’t too far from the park, about fifteen minutes with their usual pace; but Ezekiel had to stop every time he saw a shop window that had something shiny glimmering behind the glass; and the redhead had to pause every now and then, when she felt a little dizzy or wobbly or both. 

“Cass, you okay? You look a little drunk,” Jake confessed, arching a brow as once again, the girl wobbled slightly on her unsteady feet. 

“Uh No, Ya can’t be drunk, ya only had three bottles!” the boy corrected mightily, softly pushing the redhead back into the middle of the path when she swayed too close to him for comfort. 

Cassandra frowned, her features pulling into an adorable pout of concern as she confronted the younger boy, “Ezekiel Jones! You may be forgetting the fact that I am small! My intake of units has completely unbalanced results than you,” words warbled from the girls lips without anything exactly registering in her head. 

They continued to walk until they paused outside of Cassie’s house, a black care parked in the drive way. “Dear God, your baby sitter is going to murder us,” Jake mumbled walking the girl to the doorstep, ready to take responsibility for returning a tipsy Cassie to a Badass Ex-Army-Colonel. 

Cillian giggled, shaking her head, “No she won't. She won't even notice anything. I promise. You guys go home, and thank you for an amazing birthday,” she waved off her best friends, and smiled brightly before fitting her key into the door, humming another ‘happy birthday’ song under her breath. 

“Evie! I'm home!” Cassandra yelled as she kicked off her boots and carried her belongings up to her room. The redhead wandered over to her CD player, pressing play and letting her music fill the room, and grinned at her reflection in the mirror. Cillian undid her butterfly clasp belt and undid her flower, print dress, swaying to the song slightly. 

“Do you remember how to answer your phone?” Eve stormed into the teens room, realising only too late that the redhead was dancing alone in the middle of her room, dressed only in a stormy grey sports bra, dark grey tights, and leopard print underwear. Rather than be embarrassed, Cassandra beamed when she saw the older woman. 

“Yes! Do you remember how to knock?” the girl answered and asked far too innocently as if it was a genuine concern. She leant forward to take hold of Bairds hand, pulling her baby sitter out of her room, closing the door behind her and giggling excitedly. They both stood outside of Cassandra’s bedroom door, and Cass knocked on her own door. “See, easy peasy, you try,”. She laughed and slipped inside, leaving Eve on the other side of a shut door. 

She knocked twice. 

“Who's there?” Cassandra called, and Eve entered, almost slamming the door shut behind her. 

“Are you drunk?” The blonde instantly asked, her usually calm, sweet blue eyes narrowed with concern, trying to come up with an alternative to explain why Cillian’s behaviour had dramatically changed. 

“Are you drunk who?” The girl laughed at her own joke, catching her bottom lip between her teeth as she swayed her hips to the music. Eve’s gaze landed on Cassandra’s flat stomach as she moved, blinking as she shook out of her temporary trance, strutting across the room to turn off the stereo. 

“What? No. Have you been drinking?” Eve rephrased. Cassandra paused when there was no longer music to dance to, finally looking up at the woman with an innocent grin. 

“No...” She gasped suddenly, eyes wide, “Have _you_ been drinking?”. 

“Cassandra, that’s enough, your parents specifically said that you weren’t allowed to drink,” Eve practically towered before the girl, arms crossed, almost visibly upset. 

“But...” the redhead stuttered thinking for a moment, “You said that _you_ get to make the rules,” she whispered quietly, the grin only slightly faltering on cherry-glossed lips. 

Baird rolled her eyes slightly, shaking her head, “Do you even know how those drinks can affect you with your brain tumour, Cass? Alcohol consumption decreases the survival rate of patients with your diagnosis!” Eve pointed out, louder than she had meant to. She had poured over her laptop for several hours; researching everything she thought she ought to know about caring for someone with a brain tumour; just so that she was better fit for the job when she had accepted to take care of her friend’s daughter. 

“It wasn’t that much! It was just to celebrate my birthday!” Cassandra whined, plonking down on the bottom of her double bed, and the blonde sat down beside her almost instantaneous. 

“Celebration or not, you didn’t even tell me where you were. I was worried... Your dad said you had to tell me if you were going somewhere,” Eve recalled and Cass buried her head in her knees, and the blonde tentatively ran her fingertips through fire-red locks, not meaning to sound so harsh. 

“We always hang at the park on a Friday...” Cillian mumbled into her knees, finally sitting back up with a soft sigh dissipating from her lips. “You were worried?” the words finally took root in her brain and she blinked up at the older woman. She was used to her parents constantly fretting over everything that she did, but when it came to worrying Eve, Cassandra couldn’t help but feel guilty. 

“Of course I was; You’re usually home two hours ago, and I had no clue where you were, or what was happening; What if something had happened to you?” she stressed again, and this time, the teen let her head hang in shame, she hadn’t meant to cause her baby sitter so many problems. 

“I’m sorry, Eve,” Cass whispered and the older woman shifted closer, wrapping an arm securely around the redhead’s shoulders, pulling her into a soft embrace. 

“It’s alright honey, but you have to understand that rules are in place for your own protection, do you understand?”. She nodded softly, and truthfully; she did understand. Cassandra was usually a big supporter of rules; but having fun with her best friends had just seemed so harmless. 

After a moment, she had forgotten the guilty weight in her stomach, and grinned at the warmth that being near Eve was bringing her. 

Like a jolt of lightening, Cillian sprang from her bed, delving into her backpack by the door whilst Baird watched in amusement. She returned with a slip of paper, and eagerly presented it to her babysitter. “I need you to sign this so I can go on an educational school trip on Monday,”, she grinned. 

Eve scanned the notice, only glancing back up to the beaming girl once she had fully read the whole thing, and arched a quizzical brow. “You really think I’m going to let you go on this trip after you just broke two of your dad’s rules?”. 

Cassandra’s smile fell from her face faster than a meteor falling to earth, her sky-blue eyes widened with shock; before a silent pleading took over her innocent gaze. “But... it’s an educational trip, both the history classes are going,” She fired the facts at the woman, like it would make a difference. 

“I know, Cassandra, I read your letter,” the blonde pointed out, handing back the slip of paper. Cassie only stared as if the blonde was handing her a baby alligator. 

By this point, the redhead had forgotten entirely that she was parading around her room in her underwear, she pouted again, bottom lip wavering helplessly. “I can’t be the only girl in the whole year not to go. Eve, please! I have to go on this trip. I’ll do anything!” she had started to beg, clasping her hands in front of her and brought on her biggest puppy-dog-eyes. 

Baird only sat resolute, still arching a brow at Cassandra’s little show. “You’d do anything?” she echoed doubtfully, a grin pulling at her lips as the girl frantically nodded, holding her head after momentarily feeling dizzy. 

“I really would! I _need_ to go to this museum,” Cillian implored once again. Ezekiel would constantly be sending her teasing messages if he got to go on this trip and she had to stay at home with Eve. She watched as her babysitter thought long and hard, basically on her toes for an answer. 

“I’ll let you go on this history trip if you buy me a coffee the next time that we’re in town,” the blonde decided with an audacious smirk, almost laughing when Cassandra jumped at the opportunity. 

“Deal! Deal! Deal deal deal deal!” The girl chirped ecstatically, handing Eve the paper yet again, and this time, her guardian actually signed it with an illegible scribble on the dotted line. “Yes! Eve! Thank you!”. Cassandra threw herself onto her bed in delight, staring at her permission slip like a golden ticket. “You’re the best,”. 

“No, I’m not,” Eve laughed softly laying back on the covers alongside Cassandra who instantly snuggled closer, burying her nose in the crook of the older woman’s neck, almost sighing a little at the warmth. 

“Yep, you are,”. 

It can’t have been more than eight o’clock, but Cillian cuddled into the older woman like it was the middle of the night, one arm draped across her stomach, contently listening to the softy, rhythmic beating of Eve’s heart, subconsciously tapping along to the beats with her fingertips. "You have a pretty face," she whispered quietly with awe as she struggled to keep her eyes open, but when they were, they were trained on the older woman. 

Baird swallowed thickly, not really knowing what to say. She thought about it for a while, managing to tilt her head ever so slightly to catch a glimpse of Cassandra’s radiant features aglow in the lamplight of her bedside table, her breaths were soft and steady, and it didn’t take long for her to realise that the girl had fallen soundly asleep in the time it had taken her to figure a reply. 

Eve didn’t dare move, rather staying perfectly still in that position than risk waking up Cassandra Cillian. Her heart was thudding in her chest so loud that she was surprised it hadn’t woken the girl itself, still she stayed motionless, glancing around the room, finally taking a good look. 

The walls were pristine white save for one wall that was painted with yellow hummingbirds and pink flowers. The bookshelves on the opposite wall were stocked to the brim, and plastic ivy twirled around the wood in intricate patterns. Her desk in front of the window stood proud baring a small pile of papers, her laptop and a vase of flowers that were slowly starting to lose colour and petals and the chair in front was a mustard colour, but looked so comfortable. 

The bed frame was a white rustic metal, curving into flowers at the ends, and fairy lights clung to the headboard like stars. It occurred then, to Eve, that the only Television sat in the living room, and nowhere else in the house. Cassandra’s bedroom was sweet and kind of quirky, just like the girl herself. 

Out of boredom, she picked up the book that Cillian had been reading, a Sarah Water book, called _Fingersmith_ , finding her bookmark wedged between pages 140 and 141. It wasn’t exactly snooping; books were made to be read after all; but Eve read only a paragraph of the girls' fiction before a soft blush crept to her cheeks. 

_‘I had done it, only to show her. But I lay with my mouth on hers, and felt, starting up in me, everything I had said would start in her, when Gentleman kissed her. It made me giddy. It made me blush, worse than before. It was like liquor. It made me drunk.’_. 

Did Cassandra know what she was reading? she had to. Two girls kissing in a storybook was too much of a coincidence to be true. And the idea that the sweet girl had such a book for her bedside made Eve blush more, tuck her lower lip between her teeth and replace the bookmark. 

Instead she turned out the light which was becoming more and more of a habit for the blonde, and settled down besides the redhead who was still tucked up into her side like a little doe. A little doe, that in the morning, would be eighteen. And Eve couldn't place what was so important about that fact. But she silently promised them both that Cassandra would have a good birthday.


	6. Chapter 6

Cassandra awoke to a very small headache  making itself known in the fore front of her mind, as she  tightened her arms softly around the other person occupying her bed.  Eve was always so warm  whereas she was the epitome of cold, cold hands, cold feet, cold everything, especially first thing in  the morning, and  Cillian was beyond grateful to wake up  beside a furnace wearing a tank top and  a pair of grey sleep pants. 

After a moment of slow realisation, the redhead opened her eyes again, greeted with the sight of a sleeping Eve Baird  with an arm wrapped around her shoulders, and a strand of  golden hair falling in front of her face. It was  transfixing to see  her babysitter so peaceful; Eve was always so tense and alert, always running on her drive, that it was almost alien to see her beautiful face without the concentration etched into her brow. 

Hold it,  why was she sharing Cassie's bed anyhow? Not that she really minded so much... And just like that, the memories of the previous evening hit her square in the face, and the redhead groaned, softly  detangling herself from the older woman . This had to be crossing  some kind of line , right?

Oh how Cassandra hated lines. 

“Hey, you okay?” Baird mumbled with a fatigue drugged voice that almost made Cillian want to wake Eve up constantly and get her to read from her favourite classics. Cassandra had never thought a mere voice could make her feel so light and bubbly if it wasn’t coming out of Morgan Freeman and talking about quantum physics, but the blonde was there, laying in her bed, and speaking like an angel. 

“I'm so  so sorry about yesterday, Eve, I really didn’t mean for anything to happen, I really just-"  Cass’ rambling was cut short when her babysitter  shuffled to press a finger to the young girls lips, ceasing her sentences. 

“We resolved it yesterday, Cass, no need to apologise. I feel as though I should be the one apologising for accidentally passing out on your bed,”  there was something bashful about the way that Eve spoke, and  the girl couldn’t really help but grin ever so softly, even when the blonde moved, leaving her with a warm imprint of where her body had been.  The redhead was about to say that she didn’t really mind, but Eve had already began speaking again, “What would you like for breakfast today, Birthday girl?”

“ Blueberry pancakes? ” Cassandra decided with a hopeful and cheeky grin that made the blonde laugh ever so slightly. 

“You got it,” she smiled, “Why don't you get dressed and meet me downstairs for pancakes then?” she offered and the girl nodded ecstatically before getting out of bed, and wandering to her wardrobe as Baird went to the kitchen to fire up the kettle.

Fifteen minutes later,  Cillian appeared in the doorway, looking as cute as ever in her odd but adorable style. She was wearing high-waist black shorts with over-the knee grey socks, exposing only a partial view of her thighs; she also had on a blue blouse with a golden, knitted vest over the top. Cass completed the look with a silver chain necklace, a grey beanie and brown ankle boots. She had even straightened her hair. 

Eve swallowed silently before smiling in her ordinary greeting, she was almost used to the way that Cassandra’s appearance made her head spin. The sizzling pan drew her attention back to the breakfast as the redhead bounced into the kitchen, stopping in her tracks as she noticed the wrapped parcel sitting on the table.

“Is... is this for me?” she whispered aloud, her mouth falling open with surprise as she stared back at the present.

“Coincidentally , it’s for Captain Marmalade. I bought her a present on  _ your  _ birthday, left it in  _ your _ house, and wrapped it up so that her tiny little kitten claws could tear it to shreds,” the older woman teased with a brilliant smirk, and Cassie rolled her eyes with a similar small grin on her own lips.

“ _‘Wit is the lowest form of humour’_ Eve, Alexander Pope had the right idea,” she quoted the poet with a grin before tentatively unwrapping the gift. She hadn’t expected her babysitter to get her anything; after all, her own parents had given her nothing.

Eve plated up the pancakes and set them to the side so that she could watch the girl with an extraordinary grin, subtle, but extraordinary, as the redhead tried not to tear the paper.

Cillian finally shed the present of its paper, and gasped. Eve had gotten her the hard-back collection of Hans-Christian Anderson fairy tales, the ones that she had loved so dearly before her mother had given them away. Her fingertips trembled as she brushed the spines of the vintage set, how had she remembered this tiny little detail from the other day?

“Oh...” she whimpered, “Oh Eve, this is amazing,” Cassandra could hardly believe it, taking out the first book to inspect the beautiful artwork on the cover, eyes wide and brimming with unshed tears. “Thank you, thank you so much!” her voice still held a considerate amount of shock. “You didn’t have to get me  anything, let alone  this ! ”.

The blonde shook her head feigning disbelief, “How could I not? You're eighteen, it’s a very special day,” she argued, her face was lit up entirely, seeing the young girl so happy. 

“Well, I’m not actually eighteen yet. I was born at exactly six o’clock so I have nine hours to go,” the redhead pointed out before glancing back down at her new collection, “The Emperor's new clothes... this one’s my favourite,” she said, turning the book over in her hands, her smile permanently etched onto her lips.

“The one with the llama?” Baird arched a brow, canting her head slightly. She could only frown when Cassandra burst out laughing, a bubble of happiness sounding from her chest.

“No! Not at all... that’s the Emperor’s new _ groove. _ .. not clothes, Oh my g- no,” she still giggled, shaking her head, trying to stop her senseless chuckles. Cass opened the cover, and held her breath when she saw Eve’s dedication, on the front page with the acknowledgments, loopy black ink wrote her name.

**_ Nobody should have to stop believing in Fairy Tales, _ **

**_ Happy 18th _ ** **_ Birthday, Cassandra, _ **

**_ Love, Eve x _ **

Cassie traced the final letter absent-mindedly, grinning from ear to ear. She closed the book, and hurried across the older woman, tightly wrapping her arms around her middle; Baird quickly hugged her back, strong and protective. 

“Thank you, Eve,” Cassandra mumbled into the blonde’s black blouse, not wanting to let go. 

They ate their breakfast in relative silence; mainly due to the fact that  Cillian was pouring over the artistry of her new books, blue eyes glowing brightly.

“Do you have any birthday plans today?” Baird asked, pulling the redhead out of her trance, and the girl perked up only to slouch slightly again as she shook her head.

“No, it would have been nice to hang out with Jake and Ezekiel, but my parents won’t usually let me go out without them. Besides, I saw my best friends yesterday, we celebrated then,” she was sure that she didn’t have to remind Eve about her celebrating, but when she glanced up at the woman, she was smiling nonetheless.

“Well, I don’t think I have to remind you that I’m not your parents. You should hang out with your friends, it is your birthday after all,”  Eve pointed out,  starting to really question Cassandra’s parents'  rules and motives

The redhead started dumbfounded for a moment, “Wait, really?” the surprise was evident in her voice, and her ordinary grin  unfolded into a blossoming beam. 

The baby sitter nodded, her stomach erupting with butterflies when the girl squeaked with delight, hurrying to finish her pancakes. “So long as you're back by five ,” Baird continued, and Cass just nodded ecstatically.

“I won't be late this time,”  she said with a solemn promise and finished her breakfast,  tucking her new  book into her side bag to show Jake the inscription, and see what he made out of it. 

Cillian gave Eve a quick but  warm hug before she left, practically skipping out the front door. 

* * *

Cassandra had the best time with her friends, despite the fact that they hadn't accomplished much. Both boys were delighted with the  idea that their best friend could actually spend so much time on a weekend with them.  They had all wound up at Stones house after meeting  by the library . Out of the three of them, Jake had the bigger house,  newer games and  all around a better living style, because his father owned a business  and liked to show off his wealth with fancy drinking dispensers and  colour changing lights. They didn’t stay for  long  after finding Jake's dad  drunk and mumbling on the couch .

Even though Stone has the most impressive  house; he had the worst relationship with his parent, than the others. Ezekiel mum was tough and  shoplifted  more than she actually bought things. And Cassandra.... well, she had both parents  back together, that had to be a step forward, right?

Regardless, the trio had made their home on the bridge over the lake, and they talked and jokes, and played every game that they could come up with. Ezekiel had packed his school bag with snacks and cans of coke, which he had labelled ‘birthday coke’ since neither one of them had gotten Cassandra a cake. 

She didn't mind. Getting  to spend this time with her best friends was more than she could have asked for ; throwing sticks into the water below, and watching the competing twigs race each other to the other side of the  bridge. 

Moments like those made it easy to forget  everything that was wrong with the world, and with her. 

Ezekiel and Jake had taken her half way home before they parted ways; Jones had invited their friend to spend the night so he didn't have to return to a home with a drunk father.

Cassandra got home for ten minutes to  five , proud of herself for being early. The second she walked through the front door, Eve grabbed her hand and pulled her back out the house with a grin and zero explanation. 

“ Wha -” Cillian exclaimed with surprise, as Baird unlocked her car that had now become a regular resident of her driveway. 

“Come on, I’m taking you out,” the blonde grinned as she sat in the driver's seat, blue eyes shining like diamonds, but bluer... sapphires then. 

“Like, out someplace, or out with a sniper? Your military background confuses me,” Cass joked softly, buckling her seat belt before glancing across to the older woman.

Eve had changed her attire and the redhead sat in awe for a moment. This was the first time that Cassandra had ever seen Baird with her honey-golden tresses loose and flowing just over her shoulders; it was beautiful, and for a while the young girl couldn’t help but stare. 

She was also wearing a navy coloured V-neck flannel shirt that she had rolled up past her elbows, and high-waist, black pants that hugged her body tightly. Even her casual was almost unbearable... 

Eve’s sweet laughter brought Cillian’s attention back to the conversation. “Out someplace,” she reassured, glancing briefly across to the girl in her car as she drove, “I don’t have a license for a sniper,” Baird added on the off-hand, making Cassandra giggle.

“You’re funny, Eve,” the redhead sighed with a grin that permanently held her lips before she turned her gaze to the front window, realizing that they were, once again, leaving town. It was hardly surprising really, there wasn’t much here asides from the library gardens. “Where are we going?” she finally asked, only for her babysitter to remain silent. “ Oh come on Eve! It’s my birthday, you  _ have _ to tell me!” Cillian pleaded.

“Just wait and see,” Eve responded with a warm humour in her voice.

Cassandra did not just wait and see. For the fifteen-minute drive she guessed and guessed her secret destination, growing more infuriated with the more ‘nope’s’ that Baird threw her way. She was sure that she must have guessed correctly in all that time, but the blonde had said no anyway. Cillian had guessed that she was going to see Captain Marmalade again, about five times, and eventually, she sat quiet in her seat, at a loss of ideas, and accepted her ‘just wait and see’.

After a minute or two more, Eve stopped the car, and Cassandra looked out to see the town square.

It was beautiful, much better than the town square back at home, that was just a couple of benches and trash cans circulating around an obelisk. 

Trees filled with golden leaves arched around the huge square in a crescent moon shape, the semi-circle buzzing with life and activity. Twinkling fairy lights stretched from post to post around the centre, casting everything in a warm glow. 

There were several stalls on carts selling hot beverages and snacks, even little trinkets and crocheted hats and mittens. On the left there was a winding little path that led off to an adorable ornamental gazebo, where a couple of people were standing, hanging some more lights. 

But the prize-winner that made Cassandra’s eyes light up, was the open ice-rink that took up the rest of the space outdoors. In the centre stood a fancy clock tower that illuminated most of the ice beneath it. It was large and accommodatable, and the redhead unknowingly started to bounce on her heels the closer that they got. 

“You brought me to an ice rink?!” Cillian exclaimed, louder than she had meant; but she was far too excited to care, as she beamed up towards the older woman who was already smiling at her.

“Well, that’s obvious. It’s just, when you were talking about your winter holidays with your family, you looked so happy, and it obviously meant something to you,” Baird almost sheepishly explained, a soft pink brushing against her cheeks. Eve handed the girl a coat that she had kept in the car, slipping on her own grey jacket.

Cassandra was at a loss for words. 

Eve had thought so much into her present, into her birthday... it was unreal, magical even. 

“I- you- But... You did this for me, based on a story of my life that I warbled about once, days ago?” Cassandra stumbled over her words, hardly used to anyone taking such notice of her, never mind going to this extreme. 

Her cerulean eyes glossed over with a thin sheen of tears that she refused to let fall. Instead, Cass studied a rock near her boot for a while, composing herself fully. “It’s just... nobody’s ever done anything like this for me before,” the girl admitted quietly, “I always thought that I just never really deserved it,”.

At that, Eve wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and guided her over to a bench, sitting them both down. 

“You deserve more, Cassandra,” the blonde reasoned with a pang in her stomach. She still couldn’t get over the fact that her parents, her school and her life had treated her in such a way, when she only deserved the best. And it hurt, in a way that Eve couldn’t fathom. Why did Cassandra’s happiness become such of a priority to her?

The girl glanced up, and Baird continued. “You’re one of the few genuinely good people on this earth. You’re... perfect,” Eve confessed, knowing that the word she used was the right one. “It takes a strong and brave person to go what you’ve gone through... what you’re  _ going _ through, and still come out and see the best in everything. I’ve served with many brave people, but nobody came close to you,”.

Eve took Cassandra’s hand in her own and squeezed gently, feeling the cold in the girl’s fingers, she held her hand tighter. 

The redhead couldn’t help but smile after the words had sank in, she glanced back up to those heavenly, blue eyes that hadn’t left her the whole time. “You really think so highly of me? After everything?”. She wasn’t used to that. 

Sure, adults fawned over her genius brain and lightning-fast calculations, but when they learn that behind her awards and top grades was her synaesthesia side effects, a brain tumour and normal teenage mood swings, they quickly lose interest.

But not Eve. She saw everything, and still said that she was amazing.

Baird brushed soft circled on the back of Cassie’s hand with the warm pad of the thumb. She nodded, “Of course, I do,”. 

They sat together in quiet for a while, neither one making an effort to detach their hand from the other. It’s only after ten minutes that Cassandra perked up, and Eve could practically see the metaphorical lightbulb hovering above her head, she doesn’t get the chance to ask before the redhead is on her feet, “Stay right there! I’ll be back!”.

And she skipped off in a flurry of colour. 

When the girl returned, she was holding two cups, and had a proud beam etched onto her face. “There! Payment for letting me go on the school trip,”. She had forgotten about their agreement entirely until she had focused on the smell of coffee that lingered in the air alongside cinnamon pretzels. 

Eve seemed equally as stunned and impressed as she took the offered cup and Cassandra sat back down on the bench, warming her hands on her own cocoa, never haven been one to find a delight on coffee. It was always too bitter or too rich or tasted too much like coffee. She could swallow down a sweet latte if she was thirsty, but that was about it.

“I actually forgot... thank you Cassandra,” the blonde grinned, sipping her drink.

_ See? _ Eve said  smugly in her head.  _ Perfect _ .

* * *

Cassandra eagerly tied the laces tight on her  skates , triple checking that she had knotted them correctly before eagerly standing and waddling her was over to Eve who was sat on a bench, still clad in her ordinary black boots with apparently no intention of changing. 

“Eve, what are you doing? Why aren't your skates on?” the redhead giggled slightly, as a frown slowly pulled onto her lips like the string of a kite, as she glanced around with no skates in  view . Why would her babysitter bring her here to sit on the side lines and watch?

“I’m not joining you, darling. You go ahead, I'll be here,” the blonde confirmed, almost slightly shocked when  Cillian moved further  _ away _ from the rink and closer to her , wobbling here and there as she walked on the blades. 

The teen sat down on the bench beside Baird, watching as a man skid straight past them, graceful as an eagle, soaring around the  rink. “Why not?” it was crystal clear to hear the hurt that Cassandra had tried to keep out of her question and Eve sighed, hoping it wouldn’t have come to this. 

“I don’t know how, I’ve never been ice skating before.  It was always too delicate. I was a netball kind of girl,” the blonde quickly admitted, her eyes following the skater who made it look so easy, knowing that if she were to try it, she'd probably break a couple of bones.  She turned her gaze to the girl, eyes widening when she realised that Cassandra had been watching her the whole time.

“It’s okay, everyone has to start somewhere. You've literally  beaten armies, Eve! You can beat a bit of ice,” the redhead coaxed with a brilliant smile and a pleading look in those precious blue eyes. “And I'll teach you,  I'm a pretty good teacher. I taught Ezekiel the whole of the Russian Dictatorship when he missed a whole six weeks of history lessons,” Cass provided with an excellent grin.

Eve had learnt far too early that it was practically impossible to say no to the girl, with her big blue eyes and irresistible pout, it was as though she were taking care of a puppy and not an eighteen year old girl. 

“Alright,  _ fine _ , but if I fall, I'm coming straight back to this bench, deal?” she arched a brow and  Cillian nodded eagerly. And that's how Baird found herself tying knots in her own skates per Cassandra’s instruction.

They wobbled towards the rink together, 

Cassandra went first, stepping onto the ice and turned to face Eve like it was the easiest thing in the world. The second that Baird put a foot on the ice, her casual grin fell and was replaced by a terror that the blonde was hastily trying to mask. 

“Hey, hey it’s okay,” the girl instantly assured, “You’re not going to fall, just stand on the ice, I’ll teach you from there,” Cassandra spoke carefully and softly, as if perhaps she was talking to a toddler, and Eve was too afraid to mind, she nodded and put both skates on the ice.

She instantly wobbled and the redhead reached out to steady her. 

“Thanks,” Eve muttered, her face pale and her eyes swimming with concern, it was plain to see that she was wondering if it was too late to turn back.

“You don’t have to be scared, Eve... I promise you won’t fall,” Cillian reassured with a confident smile that eased the blonde’s mind just a bit. “Your fear is making you lock your knees, you need to relax,” Baird did as she was told, forcing a long exhale to wind past her lips. 

“You have to keep your knees bent slightly, and your toes facing out the sides rather than directly in front of you,” Cassandra directed, skating in a tiny circle to show Eve her footwork and positioning. “Are you still nervous?” she asked after a moment.

“It’s ice, Cassandra, it shouldn’t be underneath my feet with me being calm about that,” Baird pointed out, obviously still stressing. Still, she fixed her gaze on  Cillian's skates and watched them glide side to side, pushing out ever so gently.

She made it look so  simple . 

“Are you ready to try?” Cassie asks, sliding to a stop in front of the older woman who looked at her like she just skated on custard. 

“No,” Eve mumbled before sighing, glancing up at the girl, “But I’ll try it anyway,”.

Baird wobbled slightly as she took her first step and instantly, Eve shoots her hand out to grasp Cassandra, and the redhead quickly interlocked their fingers to steady her again. She’d never seen Eve so reliant on another person, and in a way, it was kind of adorable. 

“You can do this, Eve,” Cillian encouraged as Baird began to replicate the motion of her skates, and little by little, she starts to pick up on the footwork without thinking so much. “You’re getting it!” Cassandra cheered as Eve became more confident. She’s skating, albeit slowly, but at least she had balance.

“I-… I can actually do it,” the blonde half gasped half laughed in surprise as she slowly began to lessen her grip on the  girl's hand as they slowly made their way around a third of the rink.

The redhead had completely let go of Eve’s hand, and the blonde was skating on her own, picking up her steadiness and rhythm before finally, her babysitter felt confident enough to go at a better pace. Cassandra cheered loudly catching the attention of the other skaters. 

They shared the rink with about five other people, one of which had to be a professional. He weaved around effortlessly, pulling stunts and turns like he was preparing for some kind of competition. 

“See! You can skate! I’m a good teacher!” Cassandra laughed quietly as they made their way around to the front of the rink once again. They'd done a whole circle, and the redhead was proud. 

“Don’t stop, I want to keep going!” Eve declared with timid laughter, and Cillian giggled too, skating backwards for a moment so that she could beam at the blonde. “Uh-uh I don’t want to learn that, I want to see where I’m going thanks,” Baird teased.

“I wasn’t going to teach you!” Cassandra turned back around, smiling still, feeling the cold on her cheeks and the rush as a breeze swept through her hair reminding her entirely of her retreat to her uncles.

It was impossible to measure how happy she was in that moment; she’d never been this happy, it was practically off the charts. 

Eve felt comfortable enough to stop staring at her feet when she was skating, and had taken to watching Cassandra, who would smile as if nobody could see her; like she was genuinely happy, and it made her heart burst. 

But concentrating on the girl beside her instead of what she was doing paid its price when the blonde felt her footing slide out from beneath her and she went crashing down on the ice; accidentally grabbing hold of the girl and pulling her down too. 

Eve fell on her back with a soft groan, and Cassandra landed on top of her in an awkward, blushing mess. 

“Eve! Are you okay? Oh my- I'm so sorry. Are you hurt?” the rapid-fire question left Cassie’s lips in a panic as she tried to get up, overly concerned with her  babysitter's welfare. 

“I’m alright,” Baird muttered with a guttural groan as she sat up, the breath had been knocked out of her chest, but that was about it, “Are you alright? I’m so  so sorry for grabbing onto you-” she had  began , but Cassandra nodded that she was fine, and together, they pulled themselves back up on their feet, breathless and a little dazed. 

“I’m sorry for letting you fall,” Cillian whispered, “If you want to go back to the bench, we can do,” 

They stood with barely three inches between them, chests heaving and eyes wide. Cassandra pushed her beanie back into place her careful blue eyes wandering over every part of Eve’s beautiful face to make sure that she was really okay, her gaze stopped when she met blue eyes staring back.

“I’m sorry, Cassie, I didn’t mean to hurt you,” the blonde spoke and Cillian’s heart leapt into her throat all of a sudden when ethereal fingertips stroked across her cheek, caressing down so that she just traced the corner of her lips. The breath caught in the back of the redhead's throat and Eve’s long digits hooked beneath her chin, raising her head ever so slightly as the older woman slid forwards, vanquishing the space between them. She pressed her lips against the Cassandra’s.

And that was when Cassandra Cillian kissed her baby sitter.

Eve’s lips were as soft as she’d thought they would be, but still firm and warm, sending butterflies to nestle in her stomach, and she returned the kiss with passion and excitement, she had never been kissed before, let alone like this, there was nothing so beautiful in the world, except for maybe Eve herself. 

Kissing the redhead made Baird happier than she had felt in a long time, and nothing could compare to the waves of adoration that came crashing down on the pair of them. Cassandra’s cherry lip balm had her senseless.

At that second, the clock tower chimed, its bell tolling six o’clock, and Cillian had to hold back a smile as her lips connected with Eve’s. 

She had her first kiss seconds before she had turned eighteen.

They pulled apart breathless and stunned, and so many unspoken things lingered in the air between them.

The beam that Cassandra wore began to die down, as the rest of her head tried to make sense of what just happened, and before Eve could ask what was wrong, the girl skated off the rink in a hurry.

Eve skated as fast as she dared, barely able to walk on the skates once she was off the ice. She traded the skates for her regular boots, quickly changing before hurrying around the square to try and find the red-haired girl. 

She found the girl sitting on a bench, her head in her hands, mumbling about something.

“Cassandra! Are you okay? What happened?” Baird instantly asked, her heart thudding in her chest as the girl looked up; honestly, Eve could probably deal with rejection, but it had just come as a surprise. She sat down nervously, close to the redhead, and took a breath. “Look... I’m sorry if that was... out of line, I may have been picking up signals that weren’t there and I... I didn’t mean to frighten you,”.

Cillian pulled off her hat, wringing it tightly between her hands as she visibly stressed.

“I like you, Eve!” she blurted out, as if she been holding it in forever. “I like you a lot, in a way that I have never thought that I’d ever feel about anyone, and... it scares me.” Cassandra admitted her innocent, blue eyes wide.

She played with her beanie, to give her hands something to do with her nerves, “It’s hard for me to understand my feelings, it’s so unpredictable. There are no rules to love; there are no methods for feelings, no explanations like there are for maths and science. And the truth is,” Cassandra took a deep breath, “I didn’t think that anyone could like  _ me _ , and honestly, I could understand why, but then you come along and defy every expectation,”. 

Eve listened like the world depended on it. Cassandra was scared? That was okay, an hour ago she had been scared of ice-skating, but the girl had opened her up to a whole new world of experiences, she only had to do the same.

Cillian sighed, shaking her head as she continued, “I’ve never felt comfortable relying on anyone, the only person that I really needed was myself... until you. And it petrifies me to admit that I need you. I need you, Eve, and I don’t even know why, not yet. I just know that if you were to walk out of my life for good after just suddenly entering it... I wouldn’t know what to do.” there’s a pause, a silence that hangs heavy in the air, “I just... don’t know how to be in love, I’ve never loved anyone before, not like this, and nobody has ever loved me,”.

Cassandra wiped away a tear and hung her head, almost flinching when she felt the blonde take her hand again, entwining their fingers together. 

“Look at me, Cassie,” Baird requested, and slowly, the girl raised her head, surprised to see how much support was glistening in Eve’s blue eyes,  support , and adoration. 

“It’s okay to be afraid, that’s what makes you human; but relationships don’t have to be so complicated. I like you too, more than I know I should, but I can’t help it. You don’t have to figure out your feelings straight away; in fact, you should take some time to figure out everything that you really feel, everything you want and need.” Eve shuffled closer on the bench, and let her thumb run soothingly across the  girl's cheek. “Just know that if you need me, I’m here for you, always, no matter what. And if it’s something that you want, I’ll teach you what it’s like to be loved,” Baird promised.

No sooner had the words been spoken, Cassandra leant forward, pressing their lips together in another kiss that felt like raw magic; pure and purposeful. 

“I’d like that,” the girl whispered back, with that perfect smile pulling at her lips.

* * *

The car ride was quiet, and even when they got home, Cillian wasn’t too sure what she ought to say; deciding to do as Eve had said, and think about everything; to try and make sense of her feelings. She had a hundred books, and her father's study had a hundred more; somewhere in one of those had to explain love, but the girl was semi-positive that she had to figure this one out on her own. 

They had said goodnight, and Cassandra sat up in her bedroom for hours with a notebook and pen, writing, scribbling, crossing out, until eventually, she figured out what she had always known. 

She was in love with Eve Baird. 

It was a quarter to two when Cassandra quietly pushed open the door of the spare bedroom, unable to see much in the dark, she paused near the door frame and whispered, “Eve... are you asleep?” the girl waited, her heart pounding in her chest. 

“No darling, I’m awake, is everything okay?” the bed-side lamp switched on, and its light immediately bathed the two in gold. The blonde winced slightly, sitting up against her pillows.

“I. ..I’ve been thinking,” Cillian mumbled, as if the mere act of thinking was taboo. Eve pulled the duvet cover back on the spare side of the bed, and the girl didn’t even have to be asked before slipping under the sheets, lying beside the blonde. 

“I like you... and you know what I mean when I say I like you, even if I’m not fully ready to say it yet,” Cassandra mumbled, and Baird nodded softly. “I know in the future, I’m going to have to tell my parents everything, but I’d prefer to wait until the right time, if... if that’s alright?”.

“It’s perfectly alright, Cassandra,” Eve assured, nodding again with a gentle smile. She turned off the light, and rolled back on her side to wrap her arm securely around the redhead that snuggled closer into the embrace with a smile of her own. 

Baird smiled brightly to herself, feeling the girl's body so close to hers. She sighed and whispered, “I like you, too,”.


	7. Chapter 7

“No way!” Cassandra accidentally let the words fly past her lips as she and Eve wandered into the kitchen together that Sunday morning, and a chocolate cake sat proudly on the kitchen table, complete with unlit candles, frosting and sprinkles. Cassie loved sprinkles! She quickly counted the candles and sure enough, there where eighteen. “A birthday cake?! Did you make me a  _ birthday cake _ ?!” she exclaimed again.

“I made it Friday while you were at school,” Eve spoke, obviously rather proud with herself. “I had to hide it in the ironing cupboard,” she continued, rounding the table to pull a box of matches out of the drawer. 

“I had no idea you could bake like this,” the redhead muttered, still fawning over the chocolate heaven.

Baird just shrugged softly, striking a match and began lighting candles, “Google helped a lot. Like, why use the word ‘dredge’ in a recipe if you’re not going to tell me how to do the ‘dredge’,” Eve  rolled her eyes with her mild annoyance. “I managed to get sprinkles and chocolate when I went grocery shopping... make a wish!” she finally stated once all the candles were lit.

Cassandra thought to herself, before eventually, she blew out the candles and swiped her finger against the top of the frosting, sticking her finger in her mouth before Eve could protest, “ Mhm , delicious,” the girl beamed happily, humming to herself.

“I would have given it to you yesterday, but... things happened,” Eve mumbled, brushing  Cillian’s red hair out of her face and behind her ear affectionately as she smiled.

“That’s okay,” Cassie grinned, almost bouncing on her toes as she nudged into the ethereal touch, her grin deepening as she glanced up towards the blonde, “Can we have chocolate cake for breakfast?” she asked hopefully, eyes wide and longing; practically irresistible to the babysitter. 

“Oh, alright, but do  _ not _ tell your parents,”. The girl hurried to get a knife and Eve started to remove the candles. “What do you usually do on Sunday’s anyway ?”

Cassandra shrugged as she cut her cake, “ Depends. My mum makes us go to church every morning, but if it was just me and my dad, we'd sometimes chill on the couch and watch some underrated tv show in our pyjamas,” she smiled almost sadly, and Eve figured that the redhead hadn’t spent much time alone with her dad since her parents had gotten back together after the divorce. 

Her hand brushed softly over Cillian’s shoulder as she passed, a warm smile on her lips, “ That sounds like a plan. ”. Baird nodded, and watched Cassandra Cillian’s sweet, blue eyes light up.

* * *

They were sat together in the closest huddle that physics allowed; Cassandra sat on one side of the couch with her legs tucked beneath her, half leaning against a cushion, half leaning on Eve, who in turn was cuddled up close into the girl's side with her head gently resting on Cillian’s shoulder and her feet up on the other end of the sofa. 

And it all felt completely natural; Eve had barely noticed that the redhead had been holding her hand until a soft squeeze alerted the older woman to tiny mistake in the television series that only Cassie had seen. 

Baird couldn’t remember the last time she had chilled like this with another person; fairly sure that lying on the couch with a kitten curled up on her chest didn’t count. She was happy and content for the first time in quite a long time, and nothing could disturb her now, not even the small but insistent buzz of Cassandra’s phone that vibrated from down the side of the sofa.

“ Oh no, poor Ms Charlene! ” the redhead muttered, and Eve finally drew her attention away from the screen, to the little screen of Cillian’s mobile and then up to the girls face that was contorted with concern.

“ What’s up? ” she asked, shuffling into an upright position.

Cassandra swallowed thickly, “It’s Ms Charlene, the history teacher, she took a tumble down the stairs and broke her hip... I hope she'll be alright, But Mr Carsen said that  if he can’t find a replacement to chaperone the trip, he'll  be forced  to cancel it ,” the redhead worried with a mixture of Charlene and the potential cancelation of her school trip.

“Can I borrow that?” Baird inquired softly, and Cassandra didn’t even hesitate before handing over her phone. A genuine grin overtook the blonde’s lips, as she saw her own picture smiling back. Cassandra’s wallpaper was the photo that she had taken of the two of them with Captain Marmalade fast asleep. Eve read the single message that the contact ‘Mr Carsen’ had sent, presumably to the whole class, and rang the number.

_“Uh, hello, Cassandra?”_ the males voice wobbled on the end of the line as if the call had interrupted something only half important, like drinking coffee, or marking papers. Cassandra only stared with wide eyes as her baby sitter spoke.

“Actually, my name is Eve Baird, Cassandra’s acting guardian,” the woman introduced, hearing only scuffling, she continued, “I’m sorry for what happened to Ms Charlene; but cancelling the trip would be an awful let down to the students; so I was wondering if I could be your replacement chaperone?” Eve asked, holding the phone to her ear.

_“Hmmm,”_ Mr Carsen droned on the other line, audibly opening and closing drawers, _“Well, you’d need to have some first-aid experience-”_

“I completed a year of CCF First Aid trainer courses that provided the level three certificate in immediate emergency care, including AED and anaphylaxis training as a part of my army training,” Eve cut in; not wanting a man to tell her what she had to be qualified for; the teacher paused, before stammering again. 

_“Y-you would need some experience in dealing with teenagers of the same age group,”_ he listed again and Baird almost rolled her eyes.

“I’m literally taking care of Cassandra,” she pointed out and almost heard Carsen mutter something under his breath.

_“Criminal record?”_

“Non-existent,” Eve answered immediately and Mr Carsen began talking a lot faster and cheerier as well.

_“So_ _the coach leaves at ten tomorrow, I suggest you be there early and I’ll print out some conditions that you’ll need to sign of course; I look forward to seeing you there, Eve Baird,”_ the voice over the phone sounded ecstatic, like he had been upset by the fact that the trip was almost cancelled. 

“See you tomorrow,” she said as a courtesy before hanging up, turning to see an awe-struck Cassandra sat with her mouth hung open ever so slightly.

“What just happened?” she whispered, barely loud enough for anyone to hear.

Eve handed the girl back her phone with a soft smile, “I’m your new chaperone for your school trip,”.

* * *

Cassandra had wondered what it would be like to have to spend the whole day away from Eve; and had worried that she wouldn’t be able to enjoy herself as much knowing that the woman that she liked would be hours away, by herself. But now she was worrying far too much about the idea of Baird accompanying her on the trip; Eve hadn’t exactly been nice the first time she had met the students in her class.

However, that wasn’t the reason that had the redhead panicking; it was the fact that she wouldn’t be able to help the small but loving glances that she’d keep sending towards the blonde, that anyone would be able to notice; she could forget where she was or who she was with and just take hold of Baird’s hand like she loved to do. And if any of her classmates were to witness the way that Cassandra would step on her tip-toes to reach Eve’s lips... well, there would be hell to pay.

She wasn’t afraid of Eve being around her; she was afraid of what she might do if she was around Eve.

And so, only moments after Baird parked her car in the faculty parking lot, Cassandra hurriedly went over to where she spotted Jake and Ezekiel whilst the blonde found Mr Carsen and signed what she had to sign.

“Cassie, can I borrow  ya back?” Jones instantly asked the second that he saw his friend and the redhead turned around, leaning forward slightly so that Ezekiel could forge his mother's signature on the permission slip that had been left blank. “ Ya faith in me is staggering... I don’t even have that much faith in  m’self ,” he muttered after he finished and Cassandra stood back up straight.

“Why didn’t your mum sign it herself?” she asked, and the boy just shrugged.

“Don’t know where she is,” he mumbled and shoved both his hands in his jeans pockets, his black hair falling in front of his eyes.

“What  d’you mean you don’t know where your mother is?” Jake asked the question that Cassandra herself wanted to ask, but had gotten there first. 

Ezekiel shrugged again, “She’s probably passed out on a park bench somewhere with her Bacardi, or in a holding cell for knocking more Sephora lipsticks into her handbag, it’s no big deal, jus’ a regular weekend,” he didn’t wait for any more questions and pulled out his phone, busying himself with whatever was on the screen.

“What’s your babysitter  doin ’ here?” Stone eventually asked, nodding over to where Eve was standing in front of the coach, looking over what seemed to be fifty-pages of rules and regulations that Mr Carsen was making her sign. 

Cassandra turned back to her best friend, a small blush already creeping into her cheeks, “She’s Ms Charlene’s replacement...” The words came out quietly, but Jake heard it  nonetheless .

“You’re kidding? Damn Cass, I almost feel sorry for you,” his tone his light and airy, a joke, Cassandra figured with a small frown. “it’s bad enough that you have a crush on your babysitter, but now you’ve got to act like you don’t,” he crossed his arms over his chest, and Ezekiel snorted into his game. 

She hadn’t told them about what had happened on her birthday; because she wasn’t all too sure what was happening. She liked  liked Eve, and Eve liked  liked her too, but what in the name of Osiris did that mean? 

Jake sat next to Ezekiel on the coach, and Cassie sat in front of them with her bag on the adjacent seat, rifling through her things and pulled out her physics book. Ezekiel stuck his head in the small gap between the two chairs like the scene from the shining. 

“Uh, Cassie what  ya doing?”  he asked and Cassandra thought it was rather obvious what she was doing.

“I’m preparing for our exam,” she answered, only for Zeke to scoff and snatch the book from her hands despite her sudden protest.

“Why the hell are ya studyin’ on a school trip? Ya s’posed to having fun,” he pulled his face out of the gap between the chairs and handed Jake the physics book.

Jake glanced up due to the commotion and instantly realised what was happening, “Yeah, I gotta agree with Zeke on this one, Cass. It’s a trip, ya gotta chill and enjoy it, besides you know everything in this book, you know you know everything in this book,” he pointed out, before standing and placed her revision book in the overhead compartment on the coach that Cassie was far too small to reach.

“I hate you guys, you know that?” she jokingly grumbled, not even attempting to climb the chairs to retrieve her book. After a ‘yep’ came from both the boys, the redhead pulled out her phone and scrolled aimlessly for a while until the bus began to move .

It’s only ten minutes later, when the coach is on a main road that her attention is drawn back to her phone when it buzzes softly in her hand. A new text message popped up on her screen

** Eve: I feel sorry for you. **

Cassandra glanced down to the front of the bus, where she could just see the top of the woman’s blonde ponytail. She quickly typed a reply.

_ In general, or because I have to deal with these guys five days a week? _

Less than fifteen seconds and her phone buzzed again.

** Eve: Your teacher talks too much, he needs an off button, seriously. **

The redhead couldn’t help but stifle a laugh, Mr Carsen was notorious for speaking too fast and hopping from topic to topic like a frog on a lily pad; which often led from a plain history lesson on the Spanish armada accidentally ending up somewhere in 1540’s Athens.

_ Yeah, he does that... _

Cassandra replied before hastily typing again.

_ I miss you. _

She stared at her screen for a minute, awaiting a reply until she saw Baird out of the corner of her eye stop beside her chair.

The blonde smiled radiantly and held onto the headrest of the chair in front of her, “Missed you too,” she said quietly enough so nobody else around her heard what she had just said, 

“How did you escape?” Cassandra asked with a soft giggle, knowing how hard it was to interject when Mr Carsen was in the middle of a rampage of knowledge. Eve softly laughed.

“I said I had to check seatbelts, speaking of... you wearing your belt?” the blonde chuckled softly again when the girl lifted her arms to reveal the belt that was strapped around her waist. As if she wouldn’t follow rules. “Good girl,” Eve teased and Cassie softly blushed.

The girl was rendered speechless for a moment, which only made Baird smirk all the more. And even when Eve handed her back her revision book from the overhead shelf, Cassandra hadn’t been able to say thank you until Eve was half way down the bus, continuing her seatbelt check. How on earth was she supposed to cope with her babysitter trailing her this whole time?

* * *

The museum was huge, and the two-hour drive had suddenly been worth it when the classes spilled through the doors with Mr Carsen up front, and Baird at the back, shepherding students in between them and making sure nobody got left behind.

Apparently, it wasn’t as hard as Cassandra had imagined having Eve around; sometimes she had even forgotten the older woman’s presence, especially when she was deep into reading the statistics board surrounding a celestial rock the size of a table. Jake and Ezekiel had also been keeping her company, telling awful jokes about whatever display they were passing at the time.

Cassie was failing to ignore Ezekiel’s horrible puns one by one and eventually after ‘How did the Vikings send secret messages?’ and the answer being ‘Norse code’. She gave in and playfully shoved him into a marbleised Julius  Caesar . 

Nearing the end of the Museum visit, Cassandra and Jake had to walk, arms linked, with Ezekiel in the middle, to guide him through the gift shop without accidentally stuffing several collectables in his pockets.

They all had dinner before getting to the hotel for eight o’clock, and almost instantly after, Mr Carsen got everyone’s attention. “Curfew is at ten, by which time all of you must be in your respectable dorms, boys with boys, girls with girls, and no exceptions. Although you are allowed to explore the hotel, please do not leave the premises, the limits are the gardens. You do have access to the game room on the third floor and the swimming pool, on ground floor,”. As soon as he had finished, the crowd split up into three groups; those who wanted to game, to swim, or to unload in their designated rooms. 

Cillian fell into that last category.

Jake and Ezekiel gave her a hug each and told her they’d be up in the games room should she change her mind, and she promised to give it some thought.

Cassandra opened the door to her allocated room and was instantly greeted with a shocked  Lamia who had been in the middle of pouring the contents of her bag all over one of the beds. The brown-skinned girl took a moment to let her dark eyes slip up and down the figure in the door before shaking her head, baring her teeth in a vicious kind of snarl. “No. No fucking way, you’re not staying here,” .

“Well, actually I am, but it’s only for a couple of hours that we probably won’t even be awake for, so it’s not that big of a deal,” the redhead shrugged, too tired to really get into an argument now. She tried to move around the girl to at least set her bag down on the bed, but  Lamia stepped in front of her no matter which way she moved.

“There’s no way I’m sharing my room with you,” the girl  snarkily said again, her dark eyes glowering.

At this point, Cassandra rolled her eyes, slinging her bag off her shoulder and onto the floor.  “We don’t exactly have a choice,” .

“You know, you might think that little stunt you pulled the other day made you less of a target but you’re still the same annoying, nerdy freak who thinks she’s better than the world, and will probably peak at fifty-two considering you live that long,”.

“Quit it  Lamia ,” Cassandra bristled.

“No, you know, at least before you got your guard dog to stand up for you, you fought your own battles...now you’re just pathetic . Is that why she’s here? To keep all the scary people from telling you the truth? That nobody wants you around?”  Lamia advanced something like a predator, and it was all the redhead could do not to shrink back in defence.

Instead, Cassandra retaliated, jaw and fists clenched as she spoke.

“You know what? In five years from now I will be doing something that I love, with someone who loves me, and I will not remember you or those hundred-dollar Louboutin's. In five years, my friends will come to visit and we’ll laugh so care-free about things that we did, and times we had fun. And in five years, you’ll still be begging your daddy for money because you never learnt basic human decency for the social interaction you need to be suitable for any job. And in ten years, you’ll be working minimum wages at a gas station at three in the morning so you don’t end up on the street after your father cuts you off.”

Adrenaline coursed through the girl as she finally caught her breath, and  Lamia couldn’t seem to form her words, pure surprise  registering on her face, eyes wide with shock.

“Now, I’m going to put my bag down and get out of your fabulous hair that cost over three hundred bucks,” Cassie picked up her bag and set it down on the opposing bed, and shrugged off her hat and her coat before leaving the room without another word.

* * *

True to her promise, the redhead  _ thought _ about joining her best friends in the game's hall. Ezekiel had sent her a photo of him playing snooker. Well, he wasn’t exactly playing snooker on the photo, it had been a blurry image of him running away with something, and Jake chasing him with a cue.

Even though she loved her friends, right now she wanted to find Eve, and Cassandra slowly made her way down to the pool where about twenty of her classmates where splashing in the water in nothing but their underwear, considering nobody had packed a bathing suit. Baird was stood at the end of the room with an odd grin on her lips as she oversaw the commotion.

The redhead lingered by the closet, watching for a while.

What if  Lamia was right? What if Eve was only here for the same reason that she had waked into her class, to make sure that nobody was bullying her. Eve was always thinking about her safety, but what if that had been the sole purpose for taking Ms Charlene’s place on this trip? 

“Hey, are you okay?”  Eve had walked around the room and had stood by her side, leaning back against the wall.  Cassandra hadn’t realised that her short run in with  Lamia was still playing on her mind, and apparently, on her facial expressions as well , and she hurried to let the tension in her jaw relax. 

She nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she glanced back to the pool, where everyone was laughing, and splashing one another, and it was in times like this that Cillian wished that she was popular, and people liked her enough to include her, and not treat her like garbage.

“Why don’t you join them?” Baird asked, noticing the way that Cassandra watched the people in her class have fun, “I can see that you want to, and besides, I’ve seen you in your underwear before,” Eve softly teased and Cassie blushed with the recollection, having forgotten the shame of dancing in her underwear the day before her birthday.

Eventually, she shook her head and wrapped her flimsy, baby pink cardigan further around her body. “But nobody else has, and I still don’t trust people not to take my clothes,” she whispered truthfully, glancing up towards the woman who was still smiling warmly down at her.

That smile gave her butterflies.

They stood like that for fifteen minutes, Eve asking her how she had enjoyed the museum and Cassandra recounting all of the new and amazing facts that she hadn’t already known, there were only very few. 

Eve checked her watch after that time and blew a whistle (that Mr Carsen must have given her, Eve and whistles were not a match), and called everyone out of the pool, “Ten minutes until curfew! Out and straight to your dorms please, no excursions,”. And everyone did as they were told, maybe they were afraid Eve was going to shout at them again.

Cillian made to exit after everyone else had left, only for Eve to rest a hand on her shoulder, “You don’t have to go, Cassandra,” Baird grinned softly as the  girl turned back around.

“B-But the curfew,” she began and the blonde laughed sweetly.

“I think you’re safe to stay with me, after all, not only am I your chaperone, I’m also your guardian and your girl-” Baird cut herself off midsentence, and for the first time in the time that Cassandra had known Eve, the older woman blushed. An intense cherry colour shading her cheeks.

Cass stammered, only managing a soft, “huh?”.

Eve softly fumbled with her watch, trying to find somewhere to look that wasn’t at Cillian, she chose a tile by her foot. “It... It’s what I’ve been saying in my head... b-but I understand if it’s far too soon to put a label on our relationship,” the blonde stammered, for the first time losing her self-confidence, and tripping over her feelings as though _ she _ were the teenager.

“I like labels!” Cassandra hurriedly blurted out so that Eve didn’t feel awkward, “I mean-  _ some  _ labels, not like grocery store labels, or, you know, rude labels,” she had said labels too many times and now the word sat awkwardly in her mouth like a chunk of lemon. “What I mean  _ is _ , I like _ that _ label,” Cillian tried correcting herself, and Eve was laughing by now, so Cassandra had to smiled.

“So... you don’t mind if I think of you as my girlfriend?” Baird finally summed up, and Cassie shook her head.

“Nope, so long as you don’t mind either?” she asked, and Eve smiled even brighter, summoning a soft ‘not at all’ to whisper past her lips and Cassandra split into a beam, at least she had a name for their relationship now, and it didn’t scare her one bit. 

“So, girlfriend, come take a dip with me,” Eve teased, and before Cillian could ask what that meant, the blonde had taken off her olive-green shirt and was folding it up by the side of the pool. 

“Oh...” the girl muttered and before long, her pink cardigan, butter-yellow blouse and bright red skirt were all laid in a neatly folded pile with her flats on top. Eve was already in the water and grinning up at the redhead. 

“Well, are you coming?” the older woman taunted, and Cassie broke into a grin before jumping, quite literally, into the deep end. She swam  towards Eve with confident strokes, having always been a confident swimmer. Cassandra had grown up like a lot of young, normal girls with the idealisation of wanting to be a mermaid, even if her mother had told her all of that stuff wasn’t real, she had loved playing pretend whenever her parents had taken her to the pool.

“This is amazing!” Cillian admitted delightedly. The room was mostly dark save for the underwater lights that tinted everything with a soft blue glow; and having the whole pool to themselves felt almost enthralling. The glimmering lights reflected off the surface of the water, and refractions of wavering blue light danced across Eve’s toned stomach as she stood up in the pool, and Cassandra found it hard to look away.

“Sure is,” Baird agreed, before surging forward to the deeper end to meet the girl in the middle. “It’s nice to get some alone time with you,” the blonde grinned, pulling the girl closer, who was as weightless as a feather in the water. 

Cassandra giggled softly, her red tresses now a dark copper and clinging to her neck. “Hey, Eve... I wanted to ask you something,” she swallowed, not sure how to mention what  Lamia had said without it sounding like an accusation. 

“Anything, darling,” the blonde floated in the water, tips of her toes just managing to touch the tiled floor.

“When you took over for Ms Charlene... was it because you wanted to make sure nobody bullied me again?” she asked in a small voice, soft blue eyes glancing up at Baird’s beautiful face, waiting for the anger or the sadness to come. Instead, Eves brow creased ever so slightly, and that was it.

“I volunteered so that your trip wasn’t cancelled, I knew how much you wanted to go on it. And I wanted to be with you, and ensuring that nobody bullied you was just an added bonus,” Baird explained, pushing Cillian’s damp hair out of her face with a soft smile. “I’m here because I want to be with you, Cass,” she whispered sweetly, and the redhead stared down into the shimmery reflection for a moment.

“ What’s going to happen on  Wednesday? ” she whispered finally glancing back up.

“The sun will rise, birds will screech, school will open, someone somewhere will be pushing a  _ pull _ door... probably me,” Eve answered with a light and airy tone, but instantly she knew that that wasn’t what the girl had meant and sighed softly. On Wednesday, her parents would be home. “I’ll go back to living with Cap, and we’ll still get to see each other, and have a normal  relationship ,” she assured with a grin as Cassandra swam closer.

“But what if-” the redhead began, but Eve cut her off with a soft, but passionate kiss to her lips. She tasted like strawberries and chlorine. 

“ Everything’s going to be fine, I promise. ” she wrapped her arms around the girl, holding her up in the water, and Cillian looped her arms loosely around the older woman’s neck. Cassandra couldn’t help but smile. This is the kind of happiness that happened in the fairy tales; this was the love that she only thought possible between the protagonist and the fair maiden.

“ How do you know ?” Cassandra finally questioned, brushing her fingertips across the nape of Eve’s neck, bringing forth a shiver that the blonde passed  off as the cold.

She smiled warmly, stealing another soft, chaste kiss before she spoke, “ Because we’re going to be together no matter what , okay?” she reassured, so positively that Cillian found it impossible to argue; when Eve spoke with such sincerity, she believed her.

“ _ No matter what? _ ” the redhead echoed slyly, waiting for Baird to nod before splashing the taller woman with a wave of water, laughing hysterically as the blonde was doused, and her mouth fell open in shock. 

“Oh, you’re on thin ice now, Cassandra!” Eve teased back, as she sent a wave splashing back at the girl who was instantly trying to sidestep the attack. Two sets of harmonious laughter echoed throughout the room, accompanied by a lot of back and forth splashing that ended with Baird splashing the girl, and Cassie diving forward to tackle Eve under the water. They both broke the surface drenched and laughing till their sides hurt.

They swam to the edge of the pool where Eve checked her watch. 

“Ten thirty... we should probably go; I have to meet with Flynn for a debrief to discuss tomorrow’s schedule,” Baird whispered, pulling herself out of the water, and Cassandra tried not to watch the water droplets cascade down her body. 

“Flynn?” she echoed once again, pulling herself up as well to sit on the side, feet still dangling in the water.

“Mr Carsen,” Eve explained, pulling a black t-shirt on over her head before buttoning up her olive blouse. 

Cassandra followed suit, changing back into her clothes, “On a first name basis and you guys are debriefing at this time of night?” she arched a brow, slowly growing infuriated when her yellow chemise kept twisting here and there. Eve offered a helping hand and carefully pulled the blouse down into place with a teasing smile.

“You’re not jealous, are you?” she taunted and Cillian quickly shook her head. “Come on,” she said when they were both dressed, “I’ll take you back to your room,”.

“No, it’s okay,” Cassie smiled light-heartedly, “I know the way, you should probably go see  _ Flynn, _ ” she teased relentlessly, tossing a sweet grin over at Eve before disappearing out of the door and up the stairs. Baird could only grin, and she let it evolve into a brilliant beam as she wondered how she had gotten so lucky, that beam was the brightest that she had ever let if get, where nobody could see her. 

Cassandra made her way back to her room, 41, and swiped her card, yet the door wouldn’t budge. The light had flashed green, her key card was valid, but it was like a chair had been wedged beneath the door handle. 

“ Lamia ! Let me in!” Cillian called out, hammering her tiny fist on the door, convinced that sooner or later,  Lamia would have to give up her antics and let her back into their room; but the longer that the redhead was standing outside in the hall, the less she believed in her own statement. Eventually, after about forty minutes when Cassandra was sat outside the door, her head up propped up on her knees, drifting in and out of consciousness, she began to realise that  Lamia wasn’t going to let her in after all.

Time wasn’t really relevant in dream- land , so she had no idea how much time had passed when she began to dream that Eve was crouching in front of her, softly shaking her arm. She was so beautiful, even in her subconscious state.

“Cassie darling, wake up,” It took far too long for the redhead to realise that this wasn’t a dream, and that she was still sat at the base of the door. “What are you doing out here?” Eve whispered softly as the girl stirred sleepily. 

“M’roomate’lock’m’out,” Cassandra mumbled all in one word as she tried to open her eyes properly.

“Come on, I’m taking you to my room,” the blonde whispered and Cass sleepily let her head fall forward onto Eve who wrapped her arms around her steadily, one arm around her back and the other under her legs before lifting her up into the air bridal-style, like she weighed no more than a kitten.

“Wouldn’t Flynn mind?” the girl tiredly whispered as she nuzzled into the woman’s chest, feeling like she was floating.

Eve carried her down the hallway, turning towards the other rooms, “I knew you were jealous,” she softly sighed and eventually managed to set Cassandra down on the only king sized bed that the room had to offer; it was a good thing that she didn’t  have to share or she would have had a lot of explaining to do for this. 

“Here you go, darling, change into this,” she handed the girl the comfiest attire that she owned, and she smiled sweetly as she watched a fatigue-drugged Cassie waddle  sleepily into the bathroom, not even pulling the door closed all the way.

She re-emerged in a minute flat with a tiny grin on her lips, “Is this your college sweater?” Cillian mumbled and Eve nodded in return. Cassandra glanced down at herself. Eve’s jacket was sky blue, with the year  and logo  printed in black over the chest. It was long on her, reaching down to her thighs like a dress, and she lost her hands in yards of  sleeve s .

It smelt like her... like coconut but with extra coffee beans and Cassandra never wanted to take it off. She ambled back to bed where Eve was, already changed in navy blue shorts and a white tank-top, and collapsed into the right side of the mattress. Baird turned off the light and pulled up the duvet covers, before wrapping her arms protectively around Cassandra Cillian’s waist.

Cassandra just managed to mumble out a ‘thank you’ before exhaustion dragged her back to dream-land, where Eve was still playing in the water, Baird’s lips on hers.


	8. Chapter 8

Cassandra squinted slightly as the morning sun filtered through the leaves of the surrounding trees, catching her bright blue eyes as she walked over to the coach, smiling almost as brilliant as the sun beams themselves. She spotted Ezekiel amongst the crowd of students that had began piling their bags into the luggage compartment, and hastily skipped over to her best friend. 

“Good Morning, Zeke,” the redhead chirped as she practically materialised by his side, and the boy  jumped ever so slightly. 

“Cassandra! What the hell have I told you about sneaking up on me like that!” the Australian  expressed, wearily settling back into his slugged, nonchalant pose, with one fist  buried in the  pocket of his grey hoodie, and the other scrolling through the apps on his phone. 

“To not sneak up on you like that?”  Cillian answered innocently, before glancing around  I’m search of her other best friend, the one that she couldn’t sneak up on no matter how hard she had tried. 

Jake was ‘ unprankable ’ . She had once treated the whole of April, like it was April fools day, and every single day for  that month, Stone had  been prepared for her antics, or had walked through her traps without a care or a flinch; so unfortunately for Ezekiel, Cassandra had to base all of her  pranks on him. 

“Where's Jake?” she finally asked, and all of a sudden, Jones stuffed his phone into his pocket, frowning.

“No I haven’t! Why would you think I knew where he was, it’s not like I keep tabs on him,” Ezekiel defended, his face growing darker , trying to hide further into his hood. Cassandra paused trying to make sense of his answer, which in all honesty, wasn’t much of an answer at all; but his behaviour was worrying.

She played with the blue cuffs of Eve’s sweater before daring to ask. “What was that? … Did something happen between you two?”.

The young thief tore down his hood, quickly glancing around the lot. “Nothing happened, it’s just, we were  talkin ’ like... all night, and I don’ even know why. We discussed everything, and I’m not a  ‘discuss-everything’ type a guy, I’m more of a ‘Have barriers and boundaries’ type a guy. But we talked about our futures an’ our families; n’ what kind of animal we’d be. It was crazy...” Jones swept his hair out of his face, almost looking like a panicked child.

“ So. .. why are you panicking so much?” The redhead asked in genuine concern, shifting her bag on her shoulder. 

Ezekiel wouldn’t look her in the eye, suddenly finding the ketchup stain on his hoodie very interesting. “I’ve been thinking ‘bout Jake. But...  y’know , not really as a friend,” his confession was barely more than a whisper, but Cassie squeaked, and resisted the urge to punch the air.

“You like Jake! This is amazing!”  Cillian beamed, almost alarmed when Ezekiel violently shook his head. 

“Say it louder, Cass, I don’ think the other kids all the way back at school heard you,” he scoffed, finally glancing back up. “An’ it’s not  amazin ’, nothing can happen, like, ever,” Cassandra was about to ask why not, but Ezekiel continued first, as if he heard her thoughts. “We’re a pretty  amazin ’ team. You, me, Jake. If I say  somethin ’ an’ he doesn’t feel the same way, then we’re over, all three of us. An’ I don’t actually  wanna be the one responsible for breaking up the three amigos,”.

He sighed, plonking himself down on the small side wall, his leg bouncing uncontrollable.  Cillian carefully took a seat beside him; she knew how it felt to love someone who might not love you back, but she was proof that it could all turn out okay.

“But... what if he does? What if he does feel the same way? You not telling him your feelings might be a bad thing; you two could be perfect for each other and you’d never know,” she smiled softly, and held Ezekiel’s hand in her own. He tried to look as if he wasn’t appreciating the support.

“I’ll think it over... jus’ don’t say anything will  ya ? Not yet,” Jones sighed softly, a small grin twinging on his lips as Cassandra promised not to say a word.

Speaking of the devil, (Cassandra never understood that term, like, why the devil? In this context, Jake was the furthest thing away from Satan), Stone appeared in the doorway, quickly counting heads, before he caught sight of his best friends and wandered over with a gigantic smile.

“Hey guys,  whatsup ?” Jake bounced over with a grin, a grey beanie, jeans and a shirt with the sleeves torn off. “Nice dress, Cassie,”  he added. The girl was still dressed in Eve’s college hoodie, and was wearing a set of thick grey tights with white sneakers and a belt. She blushed softly.

“Anyway, I overheard Mr Carsen on the phone with Principle Judson, and  Lamia is getting two weeks detention for that trick she played, she would have been suspended but it’s too close to exam season to miss school .” He admitted with a soft shrug .

Lamia . The pool. Falling asleep in the hall. Eve. Wearing Eve’s clothes. Falling asleep with Eve. Suddenly, Cassandra could hardly contain it and it almost burst from her chest.

“ I have to tell you guys something ...” she whispered with an almost cheeky grin as she bit softly on her lower lip, “It... it’s about Eve .”.

* * *

For the first time since third-grade, Cassandra didn’t want school to end. It wasn’t that her class was particularly enjoyable; but it was more the dread of what was awaiting after that school bell rang.

Blue eyes darted up towards the clock that hang on the far wall; its face almost mocking her as its hands showed it was a quarter to three. She had half an hour before confronting her problems. Cillian used to be enamoured by the idea of bending and even stopping time; even though science proved it was impossible; it seemed to her the most amazing superpower; freeze time and live in it forever. 

Ideally, Cassandra would have chosen a time when it was just her and Eve; perhaps at the movies, or at the ice rink, or even in the pool; that would have been the perfect frame to pause forever; but last period biology would have to do.

In Twenty-nine minutes and forty-one seconds, she would have to leave this classroom, and return home where her parents would be waiting, freshly back off their holiday, undoubtedly ready to gloat to their hearts content about the weather and the food and the archaeology, and everything that Cassandra would have wanted to witness first-hand. 

Honestly, the redhead wasn’t all too sure why she was so nervous; Baird had told her that everything was going to be fine. But then again, when did fine ever really mean  fine ?

_ Fine  _ was the word you used when someone asked how you are, and in reality, you’re breaking into a million pieces, but you know that they would never understand, so you fake a smile, toss out a well-polished  _ fine _ , and be on your way.  _ Fine _ was the word you use when your recently divorced parents ask how you feel about them taking a healthy vacation without you on your birthday; and you know damn well that no matter what answer you give them; they wouldn’t take it into consideration.

In the history of ever,  _ fine _ has never meant fine.

And a pit of anxiety lurched in the teenager's stomach, the feeling like she was nearing the end of the most amazing and wonderful book that had her feeling like anything was possible, and the author hasn’t yet written the sequel.

The bell rang and Cassie moved on auto-pilot, gathering her books, slipping them into her backpack, and slowly ambling the corridors in a tidal wave of students, before finding Eve’s black car standing out among the less expensive ‘mom’ cars, as she had liked to call them.

It was raining heavily, so  Cillian hugged her back-pack to her chest and made a run for it down the stairs and straight into the passenger's seat. Baird let a soft smile cross her lips as the girl sat back, breathless and damp. “Good day?” the blonde questioned, trying to ignore the elephant in the car, or the anchor-like weight in her stomach.

The redhead shrugged and engaged herself in a game of watching the raindrops race each other down the side of the window. She couldn’t pretend that everything was okay, she wasn’t that much of a good actress. 

Cassandra heard the older woman sigh softly before the engine came to life with a quiet rumble, and they were pulling out of the parking lot. The redhead felt like the trapped girl in every fairy-tale; with the question of ‘what-happens-now?’ being the panic that flares in her chest as she tries to wonder how to escape her captor; but unlike all the storybooks, her prison was soon to be her own room.

They arrived home and Eve parked on the curb. Her mother’s red beetle took up the driveway; and Cassandra didn’t realise that she could ever hate a car until now.  Cillian sat in the front seat of the car until Baird had walked around to open the door, offering her hand to escort the girl over her own threshold. 

“What am I supposed to do, Eve?” Cass whispered as she finally left the vehicle, taking slow and tiny steps in the right direction, despite the rain drenching her collar.

“You do exactly what you’ve been doing for years, Cassandra, nothing’s changed,” the blonde spoke supportively, opening the front door for the girl, who felt like she was walking into her own cage. 

Cillian sighed softly, her shoulders drooping forward, “Perhaps that’s part of the problem,” she whispered, and went inside. Almost instantly she was bombarded with her mother’s joyous raving, cutting her own sentences in half to go on a tangent about something else. Cassandra hated it when she did that.

“Oh Cassie! You’re back! I’m sure you’ll want to hear everything!” the woman beamed as she reclined on the sofa, posing like a roman goddess or something. _ Or something, _ sounded about right for the woman who had done some crazy ‘foreign’ braid in her hair, with bright blue parrot feathers sticking from her hair.

_ No, not really. _ The redhead thought, but instead she found a smile to place on her lips and nodded thoughtfully, “Sure, maybe later, where’s dad?” Cassie asked as she glanced around the living room. Just as she spoke, her father appeared in the kitchen doorway with a grin on his lips, he looked tired, and was drying his hands on a tea-towel. 

“Ah, There’s my little girl! All good?” it took a moment for her to realise that he hadn’t been asking her, but instead, he’d been asking Eve, who nodded instantly. “I’ll get your money,” he was about to shuffle over to his study, but Baird stopped him with her hand on his arm softly. 

“I can’t take your money Arthur,” she spoke clearly, and both of her parents glanced towards their daughter as if Cassandra had put her up to this. “I can’t take your money, because your daughter is amazing; she’s beyond gifted, and sweet and it has been my honour to watch out for her for this week, so I can’t in any right mind accept your money,”. 

Somehow, Eve complimenting her in all these ways made her feel even worse about the fact that the woman was leaving, and Cassandra blushed at the laces on her boots. 

“Well, look kid, you actually did something right!” her mother laughed, obviously pleased that she could save her payment towards another holiday.

“Are you sure we’re on about the same Cassandra?” Baird continued; her brow arched softly towards the woman on the couch. “Cassie does everything right, every day; she does her best in everything, and anyone would be lucky to know her,”. 

It took an immense effort not to cry right there. 

“I’ll see you around, Cass,” Eve softly whispered, pushing the girls red hair behind her ears and enveloping the teen in a warm embrace. Cillian wanted to hold on forever, but as soon as she had wrapped her arms around the woman, it was over, and Baird took her bags out the front door.

Her dad went back into the kitchen as if he hadn’t left at all, rummaging through the cupboards, and her mother had returned her attention to the tv magazine, circling anything that catches her interest. 

And Cassandra just stood there... as if the world was moving without her, like the world had forgotten her, like Eve. 

She didn’t feel grounded in her own home; with her parents; not even when her dad calls through from the kitchen: “Where are the eggs, Joyce?”. It feels as  through she’s floating through space with no way to get back down.

All it took was a split-second decision before Cassandra barged through the front door and the pelting rain before slipping back into the passenger seat of Eve’s car, slamming the door. “You can’t go!” she cried, the emotion welling up in her chest like a poisonous balloon. Warm hands cupped her cheeks, wiping away a solution of raindrops and tears.

“I have to, I can’t very well stay here, you know that,” Eve whispered, continuing to brush the pad of her thumbs across  Cillian’s cheeks long after her face was dry. And the truth was, Cassandra did know that; but it didn’t mean that she had to be happy about it, “True, I won’t be living with you, but it means we’ll get to see each other on a normal basis like a real couple,”.

Cassie sniffled, tears falling and instantly being swept away. “B-but, I’m g-going to be alone a-again,” she tried her hardest not to sob, but her shoulders were shaking nonetheless. 

“You’re never going to be alone, you’ve always got me, and whenever you’re feeling lonely, you can always call me; and besides, we’ll see each other, Captain Marmalade would be sad if you never came around to pet her,” Eve spoke softly, pressing a soft kiss to the girls forehead. “Would you like me to pick you up from school tomorrow?”.

Cassandra nodded; knowing too well that it wasn’t the end of the world; just the end of a day. 

The redhead leant over to rest her head on Eve’s shoulder gently, shivering when lithe digits comb through her hair. “It’s going to be okay, darling, I promise,” the older woman sweetly reassured.

Cillian knew that she was overreacting, but nonetheless, she shot a quick glance to the front window of the house, before surging forward to quickly press a warm kiss to Eve’s lips, as warm and as tingling as ever. “I love you, Eve,” Casandra whispered, before tensing up at the realisation. It hadn’t meant to slip out; the girl had always thought that the first time she told someone that she loved them, it would be romantic, and planned, and beyond beautiful. But this was the right time, and her heart knew it.

It had been the first time she had told her that, and Baird recognised it too, as her gentle hands ran down her arms, until their palms connected and fingers linked together. “I love you too, Cassandra Cillian,”. Eve confessed, her heart practically on fire, as it pounded in her chest.

* * *

Two months later.

They had perfected their routine over the past couple of weeks, so that now, every time Eve picked her up from school; Cassandra was far too used to settling into the leather seat, and telling the blonde all about her day, or something stupid that Ezekiel did. 

It was on Cillian to-do list, to tell her parents everything; so that they didn’t have to keep meeting this way, but it was a matter of finding the right moment; and no matter what; her parents always seemed too busy, or too involved in something other than her. 

But there was no rush. Cassandra had told her parents that she was studying for an hour and a half after school each day; which her parents didn’t bother to check up on; according to her mother, Cillian needed to revise more anyway; certain that the redhead wasn’t working hard. And after school, Eve would always be parked by the doors, and they would spend the time together doing whatever they wanted: walks through the park; spending time with Cap; getting ice creams; or watching a tv show whilst cuddling on the couch.

Eve had treated her to a few dinners over the months, but Joyce grew more concerned the more often Cassandra wouldn’t finish her tea, so they started to limit their dinner dates to two a month. 

Ezekiel and Jake would cover for her on the rare occasion that their parents spoke to them about the extra work, and Ezekiel would dramatically tell how it was a waste of time. 

Cassie flung open the door to the car, the bell had  rung a mere minute ago and the redhead flew out to the car park to find Eve.

“I did it! I got the results back for my physics paper! I aced it!” she sat down and buckled up, still buzzing with excitement as she leant over to press a kiss to the blonde’s lips.

Baird laughed delightedly, tucking a rogue strand of fire-red hair behind Cassandra’s ear as she smiled, “I’m so proud of you, Cass, but I knew you’d ace it. You ace everything, you’re amazing,” Eve complimented, knowing all too well that the young girl would get that endearing blush in her cheeks that she loved so much. “Where do you want to go today? Town hall? Park?” she offered with her warm grin.

“Actually...” Cassandra paused, chewing lightly on her bottom lip, as she glanced across to the driver, “There’s someone that I’d like for you to meet... if that’s okay?”.

Eve blinked with soft surprise before nodding, “Sure, where am I driving?”.

Cassie lit up with a brilliant grin as she bounced in her seat, “The library!”.

It was an old building, but beautiful nonetheless. It was one of the biggest structures in the street and it was obvious quite how much pride went into the place by how clean and tidy  everything looked upon entry. 

Cassandra tapped the bell in a rhythm that Eve vaguely recognised as one of those annoying, overplayed radio adverts that you hear once and it gets stuck in your head for the next eighteen centuries. 

She heard the voice before she saw who it belong to, “How many times, Miss Cillian, must I ask you not to play that infernal tune every single time you enter my library?” just then, a white-haired man shuffled from behind a towering skyscraper of manuscripts, his lips sealed with an annoyed huff as he made his way to the front of the library before pausing, as if noticing Baird only then, and he blinked. 

“How else would you know it was me?” Cassandra retorted with a small, sly little grin, and even still she was the picture of innocence.

The man shrugged, holding his hands up cluelessly, “I don’t know, but perhaps I can follow the trail of romantic novellas that sometimes don’t find their way back onto my shelves,” at that point he slipped a grin towards the taller woman, as the redhead blushed and began to sputter some explanation. “Now  now Miss Cillian; I have allowed you to keep several library copies; it’s in good hands, now, why don ’t you introduce me to your friend?”. Almost thankful for the relief, Cassie instantly took Eve’s hand with a grin.

“Jenkins, I’d like for you to meet my girlfriend, Eve Baird. Eve, this is my... Jenkins, he’s like the father I always dreamed of,”. Cassie beamed brightly,

“ _ Like _ , being a very important key word in this terminology.” Jenkins cut in before Eve could make a comment on the statement. “I run the library, she just lives here on occasion,”.

“Jenkins,” Eve grinned; there was something so sweet about the relationship between Cassandra and this librarian that could melt the hearts of ice queens. She shook his hand and he smiled ever so slightly. 

“Oh!” he jumped softly, as if just remembering something, and the man shuffled around the side of the desk, “Now, you must forgive me, Miss Cillian... I know your birthday was two months ago, but I’ve only recently found a gift that suits you,” Jenkins returned with a small white box tied closed with a blue, satin ribbon.

“Jenkins! You didn’t have to get me anything!” Cassandra almost squeaked as she accepted the gift.

“Tell that to the several multicoloured ties, and number one librarian mugs that I have upstairs,” he chortled quietly. Cassie never forgot his birthday, and would always run into the library at lightning speed to give him a present, first thing in the morning. 

Eve could only watch as Cassandra opened the small box and squealed. “My favourite purple tights!” in an instant she was on her toes and hugging the librarian so hard that Baird swore his face changed colour... or maybe that was just the effect that the girl had on people, still, the blonde’s smile lit up her face.

“Where did you even find these? You know what? It doesn’t matter! Thank you, Jenkins! I’m  gonna go wear them!”  and just like that, a breathless Cassandra was darting through the library, with her new tights on hand. 

“Cassandra told me everything,” Jenkins muttered with a satisfied grin once the girl had vanished, and led Eve through the back office as he sat down, offering the woman a chair. “She’s not had it easy, those rotten kids... she told me how you helped her, that’s brave,”. The white-haired man nodded, and Baird understood that he was grateful for stepping in on the  girl's behalf. 

“Well those kids were assholes, and I couldn’t let them get away with hurting Cassandra,” Eve explained, and Jenkins grinned a little more.

“I know she sees me as a father figure, which I have tried to assuage over the years, but in all truthfulness, Miss Baird, she’s like the daughter I never had. And I don’t want anything to ever happen to that girl,” was this the talk? Eve suddenly straightened up a little more, her seriousness flooding back to her features.

“Believe me, I would never do anything to hurt her, she’s... perfect, so perfect, and I am more than lucky to get to be with her,” Eve solemnly promised, and Jenkins seemed satisfied with her answer, and started to smile again.

“You know... she’s been wanting someone like you for the longest time,” he admitted with a slight chuckle.

Baird arched a brow slightly, tilting her head. “What does that mean?”

_ “Finished already?” Jenkins chortled slightly as a breathless Cassandra dropped her returning library book onto the counter. “You only checked this out two days ago” still, he took the book back, and stamped in the date on the returns slip. _

_ “I couldn’t put it down!” the fifteen-year-old girl sighed exasperated, “It was beautiful, the way that Anya never left her side, not even when she was close to death; that was so courageous. And the way that Emily refused to die, just so that they could be together that little while longer...” Cillian paused, before glancing up to the librarian, “Do you think that will ever happen to me?”. _

_ He paused and thought a while. “That you refuse to die? Maybe. You’re strong enough for that,”. She was strong. They had found out about her brain tumour six months ago; and she had stopped coming to the library and had started going to hospitals, but now she was back, and only twice had he caught the girl crying in the centre of the library; and he would bring her tea and  _ _ biscuits _ _ , and they’d talk about her feelings.  _

_ “No, not that,” she explained, shifting her weight from foot to foot. “Do you think I’d ever find someone who would want to stay with me when I... you know, when I die?”. Jenkins swallowed a lump in his throat. “I don’t want a fairy tale... but I just want someone who will be there for my happy ever after. Someone who will look at me, and not see a tombstone, but an ordinary girl. Could I ever have that, Jenkins?”.  _

_ Her blue eyes brimmed with tears, yet still hopeful, always hopeful. _

_ He nodded, and waddled around the counter to let the girl into one of his very rare hugs. “You’ll have all of that and more, Miss Cillian. You’ll get love, and happiness, and a life worth living... You’ll find your happy ever after, or she’ll find you, I promise,” he confessed, and her small arms squeezed tighter around his middle. _

“You really are the father she needed,” Eve spoke in a gentle whispered after Jenkins finished speaking, and she quickly battered away a stray tear that had unknowingly escaped from her blue eyes. 

The snowy-haired man offered a hollow grin and a nod, rubbing his hands on his knees before standing, just as the redhead appeared in the doorway, bursting with joy and energy. “They’re perfect!” Cassandra twirled slightly, showing off her new and improved purple tights, her floral skirt spiralling as she spun. “Thank you, Jenkins!” she said again, and hugged him once more.

“It’s my pleasure, Miss Cillian,” he grinned, and returned the embrace for a moment, before pulling back and nodding towards the blonde. “And might I say; an excellent choice of a happy-ever-after... I know you’ll be good together,”.

His words soften something in the older woman, and before Eve had even made up her mind, she’s on her feet and hugging the librarian herself, “thank you, Jenkins,” she whispered, quiet enough to just be heard by herself and the man.

He chuckled slightly when Baird pulled away with a blush, wrapping an arm loosely around Cassie’s waist.  The girl was smiling ecstatically, as if her cheeks could hardly contain the extent of her grin.

“Come on, I want to show you something,” Cassandra whispered reverently, almost as if her excitement was a simple prayer as she took Eve’s hand in her own, entwining their fingers with instinct.

“Don’t let me catch you in the forensic accounting section, Miss Cillian,” Jenkins called as a matter of reminder; piquing Eve Baird’s curiosity as she tried to keep up with you young redheads determined pace.

“So...” she began, letting the syllable drag in the air, “what’s in the forensic accounting section?” the blonde asked as soon as they were out of the man’s earshot; she had to know, it was now a mystery that Baird wanted to solve. 

Cassandra slowed down slightly, her red curls bouncing as she glanced back over her shoulder with a giddy smile, “That’s where they have a secret lab dedicated to bringing back the replicated genes of dinosaurs,” she answered without missing a beat before continuing to skip down the shelves.

“Wait, what?!” Eve exclaimed; heart suddenly thumping as she pictured some sci-fi underground research base with dinosaur eggs and other things. It’s only until the girl can no longer contain that bubble of laughter bursting forth from her lips does the taller woman realise it’s a joke. 

Of course it was. “Hey that’s not funny!” Eve reprimanded, even though a soft smile grew onto her lips, bright like cherry blossom. 

“You should’ve seen your face!” Cassandra giggled, clutching onto her side as she tried hard to regain her composure before creasing over with more laughter and giggles. 

“I’m glad you find it amusing, Cassandra, really! There are literally five movies which explain why that’s not a good idea!” The redhead is still laughing, struggling to walk in a straight line, “So, what’s up with the Accounting section? And no dinosaurs!” Eve spoke with a fake stern tone to her voice which sobered up the girl just enough. 

“It’s where... you know... kids go there to make out and stuff... cause it’s a really dull section and nobody really goes there, except Jenkins that is. He’s always chasing kids out of there in their underwear and it’s  kinda funny,” Cassie giggles softly again, before turning a corner, and stopping right at the centre of the library.

It’s where all the shelves connect in a small circle alcove, and the floor is littered with cushions, blankets and beanbags; sort of like a little nest for people. 

“Alright, I’ll give it to Jenkins, this is really cute, and it’s a good idea to have a nap station,” Eve said, already releasing Cassandra’s hand to make herself comfortable against one of the bean bags. 

“Actually, it was my idea. He kind of got sick of me bringing my own cushion to sit on whenever I spent the days here... so we both brought down his old pillows and things, it was so nice,” the redhead explained, curling up onto one of the blankets, hugging a cushion to her chest. “I read here a lot,” she admitted, and Eve glanced over, reaching out to softly stroke Cillian’s amber tresses.

“Why do you spend so much time here? Besides Jenkins being your friend?” Baird inquired softly, shuffling further down the bean bag until she was  lying beside Cassandra, their  pinky fingers entwined.

“Things were always tough with my parents, even before we found out about my tumour. They didn’t approve of having much of a social life; so my spare time was always spent doing things for school, or summer revision; so I got to hang out here a lot when my mum had a hair appointment or my dad was at work,” she shrugged at the simplicity of it all, “It’s not like I minded, I made friends with Jenkins quite early... it would’ve just been nice to get to have had more friends my age, from camps, or parties, that I never got to go to,”.

Cassandra blinked a couple of times, letting a sigh dwindle past her lips, it wasn’t as though she was ungrateful, she just wished to have  had some normality in her life. 

“Anyway,” the redhead chirped softly, tilting her head so that she could smile across to the blonde, “Do you like Louis de Bernières?”.

Jenkins knew where Cassandra would be; where she always was. Almost every morning before school she would come in and talk for twenty minutes before spending another twenty cosied up in all her cushions, reading, before heading off to school. Since she was twelve; Cassandra would always slip into the library on her way home and tell the old man everything about her day; who picked on her; who she liked; her favourite subjects, he heard it all. 

She’d only stopped checking in recently, which he knew would happen eventually, when she found the person she needed; and even though the caretaker was delighted for the girl; he did miss their after-school talks; but at least her still saw her on the mornings.

He carried the tray through the shelves, three cups of tea slightly wobbling here and there, and he paused when he heard the redhead reading aloud from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. 

“Love is temporary madness; it erupts like volcanoes and the subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision; you have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not  breathlessness, it is not excitement. It is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being ’in love’, which any fool can do. Love itself is left over when being ‘in love’ has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those who truly love have roots that grow toward each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.”.

She finished the passage and sighed happily and Jenkins softly cleared his throat bringing forth the tray of teas. “Don’t mind me, I just figured that you’d both enjoy some refreshments,” the librarian stated, setting down the tray on a small stool. 

“I thought drinks weren’t allowed in libraries?” Eve inquired with a soft smirk pulling on her lips as she picked up one of the cups, nursing it in her hands a moment.

“Oh, you’re not,” Jenkins shook his head in all seriousness, “You have to go outside to drink it, and then come back,” he explained, his  neutral expression unwavering.

“Wait, what?!” Baird exclaimed, eyes widening slightly, having already taken a sip from the floral, antique cup. Jenkins catches Cassandra’s gaze and winks, and they both let loose a soft tinkle of laughter. 

_ Another Joke,  _ Eve figured, relaxing slightly. “You’re as bad as she is!” the blonde spoke, shaking her head as Cassandra lightly hit her with a pillow, careful not to knock the tea. Shortly, all three of them were laughing, as if the tea had been laced with a giggling potion, and all that Cillian knew in that moment, is that she had never been happier. 

* * *

Cassandra smiled at her phone screen in the darkness of her bedroom; she had recently turned out the lamp after putting down her book, and spent a couple of minutes grinning at the picture of Eve, herself, and Captain Marmalade curled up in her lap. She’d accumulated lots of  favourite photos over the weeks, but that one took the gold. 

She swiped through her gallery: Eve biting a fry that Cassie had been feeding her; Eve sitting on a perk bench in the sun; Cassandra and Eve posing under a street sign called ‘couples walk’; several pictured of Cap playing, sleeping and drinking water. 

Her heart felt like it might explode; and especially after today, how her girlfriend got on so well with Jenkins, it was like the seal of approval.

Her phone vibrated, and Eve’s contact popped up. She didn’t hesitate to open the message.

** Eve: Today was amazing. Thank you so much for letting me meet someone so dear to you. I know how important he is to you, and any friend of yours is a certain friend of mine xxx  **

** P.S Sweet dreams Cassie. **

Cassandra squealed into her pillow, before flicking on the light switch once more. The glow of the lamp illuminated her bedside table, and her books that Eve had gifted her for her birthday, she pulled out the first one, and flicked to the front page where the blonde had inscribed it. Nobody should have to stop believing in fairy tales... 

Cillian had memorised it, but still, she believed in her happily ever after, there was just one thing she had to do before she got there. The redhead softly closed the book and slipped out of her bed, silent footsteps making their way down the stairs.

It was no surprise that her parents were still awake, both sat at opposite sides of the couch, mindlessly watching tv. They only seemed to notice her, when her small frame stepping in front of the screen, and she smiled ever so softly.

“Mom, dad... there’s- there’s something that I need to tell you,”.


End file.
